SAGINAW, Michigan (ChurchMilitant.com) – A traditional priest admits to having sex with adult women.
Father Edwin Dwyer of the Diocese of Saginaw, MI was outed by a woman named Gigi Lozano in a series of recent Tik Tok Videos captioned “I accidentally met a Catholic priest.”
In a letter to Church Militant, Dwyer admitted, “I spoiled and disappointed a lot of people by leading a double life on my vacation last week.”
“A Double Life”
Lozano first explains in a June 11 video how their date happened.
“I’m going to one of the local places here on Corpus Christi Island, TX called Boathouse,” she begins. “Immediately there’s a guy next to me, and he notices me, and he starts trying to make conversation.”
“All of a sudden, religion starts to come up in the conversation, like traditions and things like that,” she said, after Dwyer asked her out on the balcony. “Anyway, long story short, we’re vibing, and I’m like, you know what, let’s go to the beach.”
They started swimming at night. According to Lozano, Dwyer invited her to his apartment to dry off, and they ended up having sex: “So something ended up happening between him and me.”
He invited her to dinner the next day, and during the conversation she asked him why he had never married: “Turns out that motherfucker was a Catholic priest, here on sabbatical, on vacation . fucking priest.”
“He did the craziest and scariest things to me,” she added. “He was someone who had a lot of experience, not someone who had been single for so long.”
In a June 13 video, Lozano says she confronted Dwyer and called him a “hypocrite.” He later told her that he regretted his actions and would confess his sins at a local Catholic church.
He was someone with a lot of experience, not someone who had been single for so long.
In a letter to Church Militant dated June 21, Fr. Dwyer admits his misconduct:
I have to say that I ruined and disappointed a lot of people by leading a double life during my vacation last week. I know you like to challenge priests who lead double lives and have homosexual relationships. I too had several relationships but with women, and I ended up getting caught and challenged on social networks. …
My bishop is angry with me and therefore [sic] are many others.
In follow-up videos, Lozano, a non-practicing Catholic, discussed the impact the encounter had on her, her anger at her deception and how her hypocrisy confirmed her reasons for not staying in. Catholic Church.
“If I was a devout Catholic, can you imagine what that would have done to my faith?” Lozano asks in a June 18 video. “Now I was born in the Catholic religion. Why? Because my grandparents were born Catholic, my mother was Catholic, they had us baptized as Catholics.”
She eventually walks away from the Faith but explains, “I’m not hitting him. I’m not hitting anyone. What I’m hitting is him and his lack of honesty.”
According to Lozano, Dwyer was alarmed when she told him she exposed him on social media: “And immediately he was like, ‘What? On what platform? Did you use my name? Did you say where I’m from? Did you tell people what church I’m from?'”
traditional priest
Church Militant has previously provided positive coverage of Dwyer, after offering a much appreciated homily in 2018 urging a return to Tradition to restore the Church.
The following year, after Dwyer implemented more traditional liturgical practices in his parish, Our Lady of Peace Church in Bay City, then Apostolic Administrator Bp. Walter Hurley dismissed him.
In February 2019, Hurley announced Dwyer’s withdrawal, after a handful of older parishioners complained. As Church Militant reported at the time:
Dwyer corrected liturgical abuses at the parish, reducing the number of extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, as required by Church law, which allows such ministers only when the number of communicants is so large that the priest needs help. He also slowly introduced more traditional practices, including, among other things, the use of Latin for the Agnus Dei and sanctus, placing two candlesticks on the altar, ringing bells during the consecration, and using incense. These changes took place mainly during a Sunday morning mass; the other Masses remained largely as they were before his arrival.
Despite everything, a handful of parishioners complained to the diocese about the changes. Dwyer’s homilies also drew complaints from some older Catholics unaccustomed to the orthodoxy and solid teaching that marked his preaching. Young parishioners and families, however, have welcomed the changes.
During his final mass, Dwyer noted:
It is very important for you all to know that it was not because of allegations of misconduct of any kind on my part that Bishop Hurley decided to revoke my appointments as SVSU Chaplain and Parish Administrator of the parish of Our Lady of Peace. My appointments have been revoked, I am not revoked for any wrongdoing.
This led to an uproar with Catholics holding Rosary demonstrations outside the Chancery at meetings of Hurley priests’ staff, objecting to his treatment of tradition-conscious clergy.
They held signs reading “Embrace tradition”, “Modernism is destroying the Church” and “Embrace our good priests”.
Church Militant contacted Fr. Dwyer for comment but received no response.
Church Militant has also contacted the Diocese of Saginaw to inquire about the father’s status. Dwyer’s priestly ministry, but received no immediate response.
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