{"id":8191,"date":"2014-03-24T12:09:22","date_gmt":"2014-03-24T12:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=8191"},"modified":"2014-03-24T12:09:22","modified_gmt":"2014-03-24T12:09:22","slug":"catholic-priest-in-gay-marriage-scandal-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/03\/catholic-priest-in-gay-marriage-scandal-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Catholic Priest in ‘gay marriage’ scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"7076037594065_9354883223720\"<\/a>A high-profile Catholic priest has been suspended after an investigation discovered he was in a sham \u2018gay marriage\u2019 to help a Pakistani immigrant stay in Britain.<\/p>\n

Father Donald Minchew \u2013 a former Anglican who converted to Catholicism after attacking the Church of England\u2019s loss\u00a0 of traditional values \u2013 admitted entering into a civil partnership as a favour to a family friend desperate to work in Britain.<\/p>\n

Last night the Home Office said it was \u2018determined to crack down on immigration offenders\u2019 and Mustajab Hussain now faces an investigation and possible deportation.<\/p>\n

The priest initially told The Mail on Sunday he would resign, but after a meeting with senior Church leaders, he has now been \u2018withdrawn from public ministry\u2019 pending\u00a0 an investigation.<\/p>\n

Mr Hussain corroborated Father Minchew\u2019s version of events when The Mail spoke to him outside Croydon furniture store Beds4U, of which he is a director.<\/p>\n

He said: “He helped me. That\u2019s it. There is nothing more.”<\/p>\n

He said he had recently been in Islamabad where his wife lived, but he refused to comment on his immigration status.<\/p>\n

However he later backtracked, suggesting there had been a gay relationship between him and the cleric, though he produced no evidence for this.<\/p>\n

Father Minchew admitted he had not told the Catholic Church that he was in a civil partnership, adding: \u2018That is an omission on my part and I will have to pay the price for it.\u2019<\/p>\n

He added, however, that he was not ashamed of what he had done, saying it had \u2018no bearing on my ministry\u2019.<\/p>\n

Father Minchew made headlines in 2012 when he criticised the Church of England before defecting with about 70 members of his congregation from St Michael and All Angels in Croydon to St Mary\u2019s Catholic Church, a few minutes\u2019 walk away.<\/p>\n

The priest branded the Church of England as \u2018banal\u2019, criticised progressive policies such as women priests, and said \u2018you can pick and choose which doctrines you follow\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Church of England allows its clergy to enter civil partnerships if they assure their bishop their relationship is celibate, but the Catholic Church \u2018strongly opposes\u2019 same-sex unions. The scandal follows the jailing of several Church of England clergy for conducting sham marriages to help immigrants get round the law.<\/p>\n

A statement from Monsignor Keith Newton, who oversees Anglican vicars who convert to Catholicism, is to be read at Father Minchew\u2019s Croydon church today.<\/p>\n

It says: \u2018Father Minchew has informed me that this partnership involved no sexual relationship. He deeply regrets his action. He apologises unreservedly for any harm or embarrassment he has caused.\u2019<\/p>\n

Father Minchew could also face prosecution for assisting unlawful immigration for entering the sham \u2018marriage\u2019 in 2008, while he was still a Church of England vicar.<\/p>\n

The civil partnership certificate shows the event at the\u00a0 register office in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was witnessed by David Nicholas and Edward Minchew, the priest\u2019s brother.<\/p>\n

Confronted by The Mail on Sunday last week Father Minchew said: “You are talking to a ruined man. I am finished. End of story.”<\/p>\n

The 66-year-old widower and father of four insisted he was not homosexual and claimed\u00a0 32-year-old Mr Hussain, a Muslim who also has a wife, had been a long-standing family friend as their fathers served together during the Second World War.<\/p>\n

The priest claimed his father, the late Harry Minchew, who was in the Royal Marines, met Muhmmad Sadiq, now a retired Pakistani government official, when he was posted to India in 1940. But when<\/p>\n

The Mail on Sunday spoke to Mr Sadiq in Islamabad, he said he had never met Mr Minchew nor served in the army.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the civil partnership at his comfortable home in Croydon, South London, the priest said: \u2018It was the only way I could see of getting him in the country.\u2019<\/p>\n

Under Home Office rules, immigrants in civil partnerships have to show they are in a genuine relationship before they are granted rights to stay in the UK.<\/p>\n

Yet Father Minchew said he and Mr Hussain had not seen each other for \u2018donkey\u2019s years\u2019.<\/p>\n

The priest initially told The Mail on Sunday he would resign, but after a meeting with senior Church leaders, he has now been \u2018withdrawn from public ministry\u2019 pending\u00a0 an investigation.<\/p>\n

Mr Hussain corroborated Father Minchew\u2019s version of events when we spoke to him outside Croydon furniture store Beds4U, of which he is a director. He said: \u2018He helped me. That\u2019s it. There is nothing more.\u2019<\/p>\n

Father Minchew could also face prosecution for assisting unlawful immigration<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: Daily Mail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A high-profile Catholic priest has been suspended after an investigation discovered he was in a sham \u2018gay marriage\u2019 to help a Pakistani immigrant stay in Britain. Father Donald Minchew \u2013 a former Anglican who converted to Catholicism after attacking the Church of England\u2019s loss\u00a0 of traditional values \u2013 admitted entering into a civil partnership as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[14],"yoast_head":"\nCatholic Priest in 'gay marriage' scandal - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. 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