It was God's will.

Worth noting - the priest is part of the Diocese of Springfield, which is fighting very hard against Illinois freedom to marry bill.

He should have tried praying the handcuffs away. Praying the gay away works - right?

Oh, is that what people mean when they say 'gay face'?

Research.

i still don't really understand why people's 911 calls are public. someone explain this to me.

At least the police didn't find the young boy too. His prayers were answered!

You know, what this man does in the privacy of his own home would be none of our business, EXCEPT that the church he serves has been busily making everyone else's private behavior its business for millenia.

This poor lonely man has to top himself? That ain't right.

@6 Um...because police and emergency medical teams are public servants paid for by tax dollars. And because 911 calls frequently result in arrests, which are also, by law, reportable to the public. And because transcripts of 911 calls frequently become part of court proceedings, which are also reportable to the public.

I'm not a lawyer, but those are just a few possible explanations off the top of my head.

@6 Agreed.
This guy is a kinky dude who may have some ethics issues as a priest but....why is it OK to make this public and ruin his life? He didn't commit a crime.

@6 I kinda agree with you. I'd think there would have to be some limit on what kind of 911 calls could be released. Calls about crimes I can see but medical emergencies without any crimialality should be handled with much more caution.

The people who slavishly believe the Catholic lie should know the truth about their perverted priests.

@11: It's OK to reprint this and ruin his life because of HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!! That's why.

@11 The RCC has made it very clear their intent is to ruin everyone else's life. They feel that the entire world should be catholic, and considering how they treat their children, that goal is absolutely disgusting. Women haven't fared all that well under the Catholics, either.

Since the RCC specifically have made it clear they feel that everyone's sex lives are their business, then every agent of theirs should be completely open about their sex lives. So this isn't a 'wrong,' it's a setting to rights.

In fact, we should demand 24/7 surveillance of every priest, monk, abbot, bishop, archbishop & cardinal and their sex lives should be public information. That would set things straight after the decades (& quite possibly centuries) of their operating a world-wide industry of raping children.

Essentially, any interaction you have with the government is subject to public disclosure. Certain personal information is considered non-disclosable, but by-and-large, most everything is disclosable. This includes documents, emails, letters, faxes, and voicemails. In some jurisdictions, it may include texts too. It's all a part of government transparency and a desire by the public to be able to police civil servants and how they follow laws and use taxpayer money. Your 9-1-1 operator is constricted by the laws the legislature enacts and the interpretation of the courts.

It should be obvious. The handcuffs were an attempt to cure his desire to masturbate. And the gag was to cure his desire to suck his own dick.

I don't think there is sufficient reason for 911 calls to be public record by default. Not all publicly funded things are public record (think birth control & Rush Limbaugh). Emergency calls represent people's most stressful, panicked, traumatized moments and the default should be privacy. It is fun to mock the hypocrisy of a priest. But what about the tears of a raped woman? The anguish of mother whose son is not breathing? The terror of a boy whose parents are violently fighting? Hopefully nobody will care to listen. But if there is controversy involved, these calls can go viral, and then everyone is speculating on whether the woman sounded "legitimately" sad enough to justify her rape accusation. Etc. For these reasons, I think 911 calls should be afforded privacy and anonymity unless a judge somewhere determines the public interest outweighs the need for privacy in a particular case.

Why did this even get leaked to the media? Father Donovan may be a hypocrite, but it's not like he hurt anybody but himself by indulging his freaky prisoner fantasies on church property. I feel bad for him. He's been publicly shamed for no good reason.

I don't understand how he was able to speak so clearly if he was wearing a gag.

The Roman Catholic Church - serving you hypocrisy since the Second Century!

Catholic priest decides that dying of embarrassment is better than actually dying.

@20 I have the same concern. Weird.