You are absolutely right Utilitas.  I have been more than a bit angry about these kinds of duplicitous situations myself.  The treatment of Father Hall by his fellow priests is despicable, but I saw the exact same thing happen to a priest friend of mine after he was removed from a teaching position at a Catholic college for being gay.  Twenty five years down the drain and only a handful of his fellow priests and less than that of his fellow professors called to see how he was doing.  We both felt the lack of response was due to fear by association since he knew half of his brother priests were gay.  It still sucked.