This story reminds me of another one that occasionally convulses the media here in Europe, the truly sad story of the disappearance of the daughter of a Vatican employee many years ago.  The tomb of a mobster was as you know recently re-opened and bones taken away.  The entire event was based on anonymous phone calls.  Not that this stopped an orgy of speculation eg I read it confidently written that she was the daughter of Archbishop Marcinkus; or that he had her held hostage in case her father the Vatican employee spilled the beans about him.  All of this could be true.  On the other hand, the papers that breathlessly reported this provided not one shred of evidence thus proving once again Terry’s Law, namely that when it comes to reporting the Vatican you can invent what you like because people will believe anything.  IMHO this report in the NYT falles into the same category.

A non story. For any Catholic sacrament to be valid you must have the correct form, words and ministers. So you would need an authorised liturgy which, not being in existence, is impossible. Thus all that may or may not have happened is that a man who happens to be a priest waved a hand over people and said things with zero authority at all. Akin to a child saying the Eucharistic prayer over a Jaffa Cake- nice try but no cigar

#2 Well, RPP, on the same grounds, one could say that the disobedient Dr Martin Dudley’s purported home-made marriage service for two gentlemen of the cloth at Great St Bart’s was a non-story, on the grounds of non-authorisation or canonical [and some would say sacramental] invalidity; but of course it is an issue, and trying to ignore it does not really help other than to sweep it under the carpet.

One might just as well say that the continued whiff of money-laundering tales are non-stories because the actions concerned could not possibly have been authorised, even though they keep surfacing and in some cases remain hanging unresolved.

I don’t know the merits of such stories, but unless one faces up to them, we delude only ourselves.  The issue is not of validity, but of disobedience and an attempt to create, or create the impression of, facts on the ground for the purpose of change - something we in England will have to deal with with some disasterous and mischievously unfit senior appointments recently.

One thing to remember, is that the Times, along with other MSM outlets, believes that the ordinands of the WomenPriests movement are real catholic priests. So, it’s likely these schismatic priests that are just going along with their inherently heretical momentum, and blessing same-sex unions. The Times won’t bother making the distinctions between true priests and purported priests.

I would not be shocked if this referred to scandals involving Diocese of Rochester’s Bishop Clark and Father James Callan.

Callan is no longer associated with the Diocese.
Here is an article about Callan and his new church. 
http://www.pewforum.org/Religion-News/RNS-Excommunicated-church-thrives-despite-censure.aspx
“Callan had been raising eyebrows in the diocese for years.  In 1993, he started performing marriage services for gay couples.”

I do not remember reading about blessings of gay marriage going on in other Dioceses.  Considering how the news always trumpets when Catholic dissent is on the move you can be assured that it would have been front page news, even if indentifying details were left out.

As a Catholic, I am neither shocked nor dismayed that some priests violate their vows. It will be a small percentage (as with the homosexuals and predators), and the secrecy is such that it’s truly a case of God judging them, as we (and their bishops) may never know the truth.

Any priest who does this - Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, or otherwise, makes a de facto renunciation of orders in doing so.

It’s as if these dolts think that God is going to bless defilement.

Perhaps the Bishop of Rome can put a stop to it. I wonder what progress he’s made with homosexual seminary faculty and seminarians.