Texas priest resigns new post after complaints about homosexual web site

Dallas, Texas, May 16, 2008 / 02:15 am

A priest in the Diocese of Dallas on Tuesday resigned from his new post at St. Michael the Archangel Church in McKinney after complaints about his past participation on an Internet site for homosexual priests.

Father Arthur Mallison had been working at the church for several weeks after being transferred from a previous parish where he had served for years.  According to the Dallas Morning News, his transfer prompted a widely circulated internet item, which reportedly described the priest’s history with the web site and questioned whether he would drive families from his new parish.

Father Mallison’s involvement in a no longer operating web site for homosexual priests briefly surfaced in news reports in 2002. 

Annette Gonzales Taylor, communications director for the Diocese of Dallas, said Father Mallison told the diocese that he had contributed to the site, which included his photo, when its purpose was to support gay priests in a celibate lifestyle.  He said he stopped contributing to the site in 2001 after others began posting pornographic material.

Taylor said that the diocese had heard from a “small faction” of McKinney parishioners, but received many more complaints, generated by the internet posting, from across the country.

Father Mallison resigned in a brief letter sent to Bishop Kevin Farrell.

The priest, Taylor said, “felt [resigning] was in the best interest of the parish, his family and the diocese.”  She said Father Mallinson remains a priest in good standing and will be in contact with the diocese about another assignment. 

"He was a very effective pastor in Lancaster, to our knowledge – very well-liked and respected," she said, according to the Dallas Morning News.