https://www.newoxfordreview.org/documents/uncle-ted-mccarrick-queen-pin-of-the-lavender-mafia/
"We identified the problem — the root cause of all the clerical sex-abuse scandals — in these pages more than 15 years ago as the “Lavender Mafia.” Believe it or not, that moniker was coined by liberal Chicago priest and popular novelist Fr. Andrew Greeley, an unlikely critic of what he once described as a network of homosexual priests and bishops who promoted one another, supported one another, and covered up one another’s crimes. We’re not talking about homosexual clerics who choose to live chastely; we’re talking about those who actively embrace the homosexual lifestyle. “It is from the ranks of these priests that most (not all, admittedly) of the abuse cases have arisen,” said Catholic apologist Karl Keating (as quoted in our New Oxford Note “Why Won’t Our Bishops Solve the ‘Gay’ Priest Problem?” Jul.-Aug. 2004). “The priestly scandal has not been so much about priests abusing children as about homosexual priests acting out their homosexuality with teenagers and young adults.”
This is an important point — a very important point — to acknowledge when seeking to understand the abuse problems that have plagued the Church in recent decades. It was explored in depth by NOR Associate Editor Michael S. Rose in his book Goodbye, Good Men (2002) and again by Philip F. Lawler in The Faithful Departed (2010). The Lavender Mafia controlled the vocations offices, seminaries, and chanceries of many dioceses, right up to the office of the bishop. (Alas, this is still true in some places.) They functioned as gatekeepers, facilitating a culture of gross sexual immorality and a self-preserving protective network formed around that immorality. Anyone who objected to this mission was ostracized, rejected, or dismissed. Those complicit in the prevailing agenda were given preferential treatment. It’s really as simple as that."
