A Catholic priest in Australia has made a controversial revelation: he has been married to a Filipina for a year now.According to Yahoo! Australia's 7News, Father Kevin Lee, a priest for 20 years in Glenmore Park, Sydney, admits "living a double life" with his wife Josephina, whom he met in the Philippines.“So I've fallen in love & I've got married & it's outside of most people's awareness, but I'm sure people within the church could have had a suspicion,” Lee told 7News.The Australian priest claimed that there are many others like him & that he pitied those “sacrificing” priests around the world who are denying themselves a relationship.“That's one of the reasons that motivated me to make public my admission that I'm one of those people who's been a pretender: To draw to the attention of the public that there are more like me, in fact most of them,” Lee was quoted as saying.“I feel sorry for them, I really do, but I think they need to admit they are not being led properly. I think celibacy has to go as a prerequisite for being a minister in the Catholic religion,” he added.While urging for the abolition of celibacy, Lee also plans to write a book about what he believes is the wider wrongdoing of fellow priests.However, after making a public confession of his marriage, 7News reported that Lee has been removed from his position as parish priest & has been excommunicated by the church.The head of the diocese, Bishop Anthony Fisher, denied Lee's claim that most priests live double lives & that the hierarchy knew of his marriage.“As Father Kevin is aware, by his actions he can no longer operate as a priest & as a result I will immediately be appointing an administrator to Padre Pio parish,” Fisher said in a statement.
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