He didn't believe much of what the Catholic Church teaches and led others into false beliefs by his public words and actions.
I "met" Dan online back in 2013- the year he became a priest. Merely weeks into his priesthood he was not only condoning sin, but encouraging people to put themselves into situations of sin.
Specifically, the issue was the sin of porn/soft porn and the occasion to lust by watching pornography. That was only the start of much more to come with this wayward heretical priest.
"Father" Dan saw nothing wrong with "soft" porn and lustful television shows which portrayed graphic sex (and violence etc), he even told me so when I confronted him on it.
You see "Father" Dan was promoting the television show "Sons of Anarchy" on Twitter, which depicts rape, mutilation, sex, nudity, drugs, etc.
I wrote about this back in 2013 (Here) sharing with "Father" Dan the official teaching of the Catholic Church on the subject of pornography and specifically a priest's duty to educate people on the harms of viewing pornography and violent television/movies etc.
PORNOGRAPHY AND VIOLENCE IN THE MEDIA
Pontifical Council for Social Communications
[in part]
9. Ordinary experience confirmed by studies conducted around the world has recognized the evil effects of pornography and violence in the media.[5] Pornography in the media is understood as a violation, through the use of audio-visual techniques, of the right to privacy of the human body in its male or female nature, a violation which reduces the human person and human body to an anonymous object of misuse for the purpose of gratifying concupiscence; violence in the media may be understood—especially in this context—as a presentation designed to appeal to base human instincts of actions contrary to the dignity of the person and depicting intense physical force exercised in a deeply offensive and often passionate manner.Specialists may disagree among themselves about how and to what degree particular individuals and groups are affected by these phenomena, but the broad outlines of the problem are stark, clear and frightening.
10. While no one can consider himself or herself immune to the corrupting effects of pornography and violence or safe from injury at the hands of those acting under their influence, the young and the immature are especially vulnerable and the most likely to be victimized. Pornography and sadistic violence debase sexuality, corrode human relationships, exploit individuals—especially women and young people—undermine marriage and family life, foster anti-social behavior and weaken the moral fiber of society itself.
11. Thus, one of the clear effects of pornography is sin. Willing participation in the production or dissemination of those noxious products can only be judged a serious moral evil. Likewise, production and dissemination of these materials could not continue if there were not a market for them, so those who use such materials not only do moral harm to themselves, but contribute to the continuation of a nefarious trade.
13. It has been said that there can be a psychological link between pornography and sadistic violence, and some pornography is itself overtly violent in theme and content. Those who view or read such material run the risk of carrying over such attitudes and behavior into their own relationships and can come to lack reverence or respect for others as precious children of God and as brothers and sisters in the same human family. Such a link between pornography and sadistic violence has particular implications for those suffering from certain forms of mental illness.
14. Even so-called "soft-core" pornography can have a progressively desensitizing effect, gradually rendering individuals morally numb and personally insensitive to the rights and dignity of others.Exposure to pornography can also be—like exposure to narcotics—habit-forming and can lead individuals to seek increasingly "hard-core" and perverse material. The likelihood of anti-social behavior can grow as this process continues.
15. Pornography can foster unhealthy preoccupations in fantasy and behavior. It can interfere with personal moral growth and the development of healthy and mature relationships, especially in marriage and family life, where mutual trust, openness and personal moral integrity in thought and in action are so important.
16. Indeed, pornography can militate against the family character of true human sexual expression. The more sexual activity is considered as a continuing frenzied search for personal gratification rather than as an expression of enduring love in marriage, the more pornography can be considered as a factor contributing to the undermining of wholesome family life.
17. In the worst cases, pornography can act as an inciting or reinforcing agent, a kind of accomplice, in the behavior of dangerous sex offenders - child molesters, rapists and killers.
18. A fundamental message of pornography and violence is disdain, the consideration of others as objects rather than as persons. Thus, pornography and violence can eat away at tenderness and compassion and can foster insensitivity and even brutality.
29. The Church And Religious Groups: For the Church, the first responsibility is the constant, clear teaching of the Faith, and therefore, of objective moral truth, including the truth about sexual morality. In an era of permissiveness and moral confusion, this requires that the Church be a prophetic voice and often a sign of contradiction.The so-called "ethic" of immediate personal gratification is fundamentally opposed to integral human growth and fulfillment.
Education for family life and indeed for responsible life in society requires formation in chastity and self-discipline. By contrast, pornography and wanton violence can blind individuals to the divine image in the human person, can weaken marriage and family life, and can do serious harm to individuals and to society itself.
Whenever possible, the Church must join with other churches, denominations and religious groups in teaching and fostering this message. It must also make the best possible use of its own institutions and personnel to give education and formation concerning the media of social communications and their proper role in individual and social life. Special attention should be given to assisting parents in their efforts.Thus, media education belongs in Catholic schools and other educational programs, in seminaries[8], in formation programs of religious and secular institutes, in the continuing formation of priests and in parish programs for youth and adults. Priests and Religious in pastoral and educational work should themselves be discriminating consumers of media who give good example in what they read and view.
32. This document is intended to address the widely expressed concerns of families and of the shepherds of the Church and to invite even more general reflection of an ethical and practical nature on the problem of pornography and violence in the communications media. It is also intended to encourage all to follow the injunction of St. Paul: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21).
Source: Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Vatican City, May 7, 1989, 23rd World Communications Day.
Archbishop John P. Foley, PresidentMonsignor Pierfranco Pastore, SecretaryLink: http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/pcscporn.htm
"Father" Dan promptly blocked me from his Twitter account and Facebook.
Guess you can't confront some priests with Catholic teachings- go figure.
"Father" Dan popped back up on my radar in 2015 when he first threatened to sue a Catholic blogger and then celebrated gay marriage.
So many red flags that even the laity could see, yet somehow this man made it thru seminary and into the priesthood! How?
At that time I wrote on my blog:
"This priest simply will NOT tolerate ANYONE who dares to rebuke him or question him about anything!
Fr. Dan has got to be disciplined by the Church and PROPERLY taught the official teachings of the Church! Catholics do NOT need this sort of intolerant bad example priest leading them into sin and heresy. We don't need priests who teach their personal opinions- we can get that in any protestant community. We need and must have priests who teach official Church doctrine- ALWAYS.
HOW did this guy become a priest in the first place??
Pray to God that Fr. Dan either changes his ways or is REMOVED from his position before he does any more damage. And pray for the souls of all the people who might be or have been, led astray by this and other wayward priests."
Well praise the Lord, "Father" Dan left the priesthood.
Not because he was corrected by his Bishop...nope. "Father" Dan began dating a divorced Catholic woman in secret and "fell in love" with her.
He left the priesthood, changed his name to Dan Murtah, gave up celibacy to have sex with this divorced woman whom he has not yet married, and is doing stand up comedy.
Quote: "We became friends over the following months and I began to fall in love, which needless to say isn’t allowed if you are a priest. Well, it is – but you shouldn’t do anything about it, apart from suppress it and go to confession, of course. You definitely shouldn’t take them to the cinema and sit on the back row (oops).
Then, in a scene resembling an episode of Ballykissangel but without anyone dying, she also fell in love with me. It was at this point that I had to make the most important decision of my life. I wanted to be a priest – I believed it was my calling and I knew that I was good at it – but I also wanted to be with her. My parents were very supportive; however, the decision would cost me my home, my job and a lot of friends. And yet in 2015, at the age of 29, I took off my dog collar for the final time and walked away from the Catholic priesthood.
Pope Francis had ignored my request for guidance: the letter I got back from a Vatican secretary told me to speak to my bishop. So I did. And after many meetings, I finally told him I was choosing love over the church. He was adamant that it wouldn’t last and I would come crawling back within a year.
I was under a lot of pressure from the church to abandon her. I was told I was “destined for great things” if I stayed – because Jesus did say success is everything (he didn’t actually). I was told that ordinary life was boring – that’s right, you ordinary lay people (yawn). I was also told that I could not break my vow of celibacy – but it turns out that it was as easy as making it. Breaking the vow didn’t upset me or make me fearful, and ultimately it made me happy. Of course it did: being with a partner is a natural part of being human.
I am currently barred from marrying my fiancee in a Catholic church; they still see me as a priest, so I would need consent from the pope. He’s recently been putting women and priests with homosexual tendencies in their place, so God knows what he’d think of me having sex. Just in case I change my mind, I’m told he won’t grant permission until after I’m 40 (that’s in a decade). So I can’t marry. Actually I can – in a registry office, on a beach, even in an Anglican church, thank you Henry VIII. Although we have yet to make a decision." [end quote]
Hey Danny Boy...worry about what God thinks of you having sex with a divorced woman outside of marriage. In case they didn't teach it to you in seminary, it's called FORNICATION and ADULTERY.
Catholic catechism: #2353 Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young.
#2380 Adultery refers to marital infidelity. When two partners, of whom at least one is married to another party, have sexual relations - even transient ones - they commit adultery. Christ condemns even adultery of mere desire. 171 The sixth commandment and the New Testament forbid adultery absolutely. 172 The prophets denounce the gravity of adultery; they see it as an image of the sin of idolatry. 173
So now Dan is a stand up comedian making fun of the priesthood, a religious educator (God help them!) and writes for the Huffington Post UK edition.
Quote: "I am currently using the knowledge I gained to teach religious affairs and I am managing to find humour in my former life in the standup comedy I do."
A huge red flag that the Church should have picked up on...
Dan's distaste for authentic Catholicism. This Catholic priest was never even Catholic! He opposed basic Catholicism!
Quote: "I first encountered conservative Catholicism during my time in the seminary and was shocked at the beliefs then. Those that followed it believed every doctrine of the Catholic church should be obeyed and that it was their job to make sure everyone else is doing the same.
I wanted to be a priest because I believed the Christian message could help those who were looking for meaning and purpose in life. The conservative catholic message, like its stance on women priests, cohabitation, and even priestly celibacy, never seemed to accommodate the real lives that ordinary Catholics are living every day.
I remember airing my concerns with a priest friend before I entered the seminary and he reassured me that if the Catholic Church was going to change then it could only come from within. I was convinced that I had to be working from inside as a priest." [end quote]
So there you have it...these men are not in the Church because they actually believe and practice the Faith. Nope. They are becoming priests to CHANGE the Faith.
In one of his Huffington Post UK article's Dan opines why in the world he ever prayed outside abortion centers...
Quote: "Six years ago when I was training to be a priest in the U.K. I would borrow the seminary car and - with some of the lads in my year group - we would travel across the city to pray outside an abortion clinic. We gathered on the path near the main gates for an hour every week and prayed out loud. We asked God to help the young girls we saw sat on the back seats of cars entering the carpark, the staff inside and what we believed to be the unborn life. We wanted our religious beliefs to impact those women’s lives and that was the problem.I am not sure why I thought standing outside on those cold afternoons was appropriate. Maybe I thought it would actually make a positive difference. I’m now certain it didn’t. No woman arriving to have an abortion was comforted by our presence. Why would they have been when we obviously felt their actions were so bad that praying quietly at church wasn’t enough - we had to gather outside and pray aloud for all to see and hear us. I now realise the unnecessary guilt and shame our presence may have caused and this is something I deeply regret."
[and] "Religious belief is only that - an assumption that something is true even if scientific evidence is lacking. There is no evidence that life begins at conception, however because there is a lack of scientific consensus religion is inclined to plug the gap with belief. Before the theory of evolution religion told us it was God who created humans, before the discovery of gravity it was angels who spun the world on its axis, and before the big bang theory God placed the heavenly bodies into space. Currently the belief that life begins at conception is plugging the scientific gap of consensus. I don’t think scientists know if they will ever find the answer to when life begins. Nonetheless it is the nature of science to look for evidence and not muddy the waters with belief.Dan is so far off the reservation here it is truly incredible to me that he managed to finish seminary and be ordained! No one noticed he held these beliefs? No one saw the red flags? This man never should have been able to become a priest.
Religious beliefs have influenced many people to do good in the world, but when religious beliefs harm other people then a line has been crossed. I support freedom of religion, but I also support freedom from religion." [end quote]
Dan tweets about the part Huffington Post UK cut out of the article, he wants to make sure you all read it:
On the bright side of things, praise our Lord that Dan is no longer a priest, and please continue to pray for the students he "educates" in religious studies. They are being fed heresy!
And may God expose these other men in the priesthood who do not believe Catholic teachings. They are heretics working devilish evil inside the Church.
In Christ,
Julie @ Connecticut Catholic Corner
Previous posts on "Father" Dan:
http://connecticutcatholiccorner.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-priesthood-pornography-and-violence.html
http://connecticutcatholiccorner.blogspot.com/2015/05/fr-dan-strikes-again.html
Other links:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/dan-murtah
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/13/a-moment-that-changed-me-leaving-catholic-priest
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dan-murtah/priesthood-love_b_15328486.html?utm_hp_ref=uk&
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dan-murtah/abortion-rights_b_14724976.html
Dan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanMurtah?lang=eu
https://twitter.com/DanMurtah/status/841752711251001346/photo/1
https://twitter.com/DanMurtah/status/672470163023921152
