Dan Schutte: popular Catholic liturgical music composer, former St. Louis Jesuit, partnered gay man?

Unfortunately, Dan Schutte...IS that Dan Schutte

We received a comment from Kelly Jefferson on our Vivificat blog regarding the status of Dan Schutte:

We have done our own reserch on the matter of Dan Schutte and found some of the accusations false. There are two Dan Schutte's who live in the Milwaukee area and there are five who live in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Dan Schutte that is mentioned in the obituaries isn't the one we know. After contacting a friend in a high place at GIA, (not OCP), I found out that there is not any truth to Dan Schutte being publicly partnered to a man. They actually said this Crux News article was having a reverse effect because in their words so many of the music directors in parishes (many who are gay) are now ordering more of Dan Schutte's music and they had heard of one Parish using nothing but Dan Schutte music for two weeks. The martre effect at play they said. I still can't find out anything from OCP but will report in when I do.

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Posted by Kelly Jefferson to Vivificat! at 9/9/2004 04:40:23 AM

My letter was based on an excerpt from The Wanderer National Catholic weekly newspaper:

Here's the excerpt from the July 29, 2004 "From the Mail" column of The Wanderer (of which I have an original copy):

"The obituaries the reader mentioned [from The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ], copies of which were enclosed, were for Dan Schutte's mother and brother, dated July 13, 2000 and March [?], 2002, respectively. The obituary for Schutte's mother mentioned that she is survived by her husband of 53 years, "Larry, her son Dick of Phoenix, and her son Dan, and his partner Michael Gail of San Francisco."

"And when Dan's brother Richard "was called home to God," the obituary continued that he is "survived by his father and his brother Dan (partner, Mike Gale) of San Francisco."

From the information above, further research was conducted. This internet search result was located using VoyagerSearch:

69.   Mike Gale: Pilgrim Music was founded in 2002 by composer Dan Schutte after hearing time and again from folks in the pew how often they were frustrated by not being able to find his music, or that of other well known artists and composers, in the stores.
URL:
http://www.pilgrimmusic.com

Size: 26.6 KB
 Date: Feb 20, 2004
[ Score: 9.476 ]

The link goes to http://www.pilgrimmusic.com. Here is their Company History, according to their site:

Company History
Pilgrim Music was founded in 2002 by composer Dan Schutte after hearing time and again from "folks in the pew" how often they were frustrated by not being able to find his music, or that of other well known artists and composers, in the stores. There are many songs that have been standards, not only of worship, but have also become personal to many Christians in their journey of faith. In response, Dan and his associates have developed this site as a vehicle for folks to find music they might enjoy for their personal prayer, or simply to enjoy around the house or in the car as they go about their day. Much of the music you'll find on this site has been personaly selected by Dan. We are continutally increasing the number of collections we offer as we search for wonderful new music for prayer.

A WHOIS search for PILGRIMMUSIC.COM reveals:

Domain Name: PILGRIMMUSIC

Administrative Contact

Pilgrim Music
mike@mikegale.net
231 Mullen Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94110
Phone: 415-505-6440

On the Pilgrin Music website, their "Contact Us" link provides an address of

109 Franconia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110


A WHOIS search for Dan Schutte's personal website, DANSCHUTTE.COM reveals:

Domain Name:DANSCHUTTE.COM
Dan Schutte
109 Franconia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
Phone: 415-970-1500
Fax..: 703-991-8203
Email: dan@danschutte.com

Obviously, both PILGRIMMUSIC.COM under the Administration of mike@mikegale.net and DANSCHUTTE.COM under the Administration of Dan Schutte list this same address,

109 Franconia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110


Unfortunately, given that

1) Dan Schutte grew up in Milwaukee and is mentioned in two obituaries from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel stating the deceased is survived by a son, Dan (partner Mike Gale) of San Francisco. Family members, if Dan and Mike were only "business" partners, would probably NOT mention the "partner" at all, or if they did, they would specify "business" partner, for fear others would think their son were gay. Plus the obits specifically mention Dan and his partner live in San Francisco. Two guys described as partners means only one thing in San Francisco, to my knowledge.

2) Dan Schutte founded a website to sell his music, and that website is administered by a Mike Gale of San Fancisco, and both share the same street address, and

3) the public announcements that Schutte is a partnered gay man were published in print and on the internet in July, yet there has been no correction of this charge (to my knowledge) by Schutte,

...it appears that, Dan Schutte the former St. Loius Jesuit and composer is indeed presently "partnered" with Mike Gale in San Francisco.

If anyone can correct my conclusions here, please email me or post a comment. I certainly do not want to malign Dan Schutte if I am in error.

On the other hand, if my conclusions are correct, the opinions expressed in my prior letter to the editor are valid, and the laity needs to know these facts so that they may be better informed when liturgical music workshops are offered in their area.

Don't believe everything you read online...our final note on the Dan Schutte debate

Several folks have mentioned that we shouldn't believe everything we read online. Admittedly, the story about Dan Schutte and his "partner" first came to our attention via an entry at Michael Rose's Cruxnews.com, in an excerpt from The Wanderer's July 2, 2004 From the Mail column:

Earlier this year, just before FTM's trusty old computer crashed and died, FTM received a fascinating email (now irretrievable) on that old St. Louis Jesuit, and former priest, Dan Schutte, who is now publicly identified as a partnered gay man.

You know Dan Schutte: he's the composer whose music you hate to hear at Mass. And just think, every time you sing one of his copyrighted songs, published in the hymnals or monthly missalettes by Oregon Catholic Press (among others) in a half-dozen different languages, including Vietnamese, (e.g. "Glory & Praise," and Today's Missal), you are generating revenues for Dan's gay lifestyle.

I have an original copy of The Wanderer's subsequent July 29, 2004 >From the Mail column which states that:

The obituaries the reader mentioned [from The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ], copies of which were enclosed, were for Dan Schutte's mother and brother, dated July 13, 2000 and March [?], 2002, respectively. The obituary for Schutte's mother mentioned that she is survived by her husband of 53 years, "Larry, her son Dick of Phoenix, and her son Dan, and his partner Michael Gail (sic) of San Francisco."

"And when Dan's brother Richard "was called home to God," the obituary continued that he is "survived by his father and his brother Dan (partner, Mike Gale) of San Francisco.

Of course, this is still a second hand source. So we still have no "proof" of the text of the supposed obituaries, just the word of The Wanderer, an admitted conservative Catholic paper.

So I called the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who referred me to a very kind and generous librarian at the Milwaukee Public Library's central location. She was kind enough to take the time to instruct me on performing a search of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's archival website.

In the paid obituaries archive (obituaries that are purchased and WRITTEN by family members of the deceased) we located the obituaries of Dan's mother and brother:

1. Original URL: http://www.jsonline.com/classifieds/deathnotices/deathnotice.asp?id=28199

Schutte, Marie
Publication Date: July 12, 2000

Of Elm Grove. Was called home to God on July 10, 2000. She is survived by her husband of fifty three years, Larry, her son, Dick of Phoenix and her son, Dan and his partner Mike Gale of San Francisco. She was born the daughter of Gert and Harry Van Himbergen and sister of Ann, Harry, George, Jack, Fran, Louise, Jeanne, Kathleen and Dick. Visitation Friday, July 14 at St. Mary's Church Elm Grove, 1260 Church Street, from 9:00 AM until the Mass of Christian Burial at 10:30 AM with Fr. Dan Pakenham officiating. Burial St. Mary's Cemetery, Elm Grove.

BECKER RITTER Michael Feerick Associate Brookfield 262-782-5330

2. Original URL: http://www.jsonline.com/classifieds/deathnotices/deathnotice.asp?id=59829
Schutte, Richard H.Publication Date: April 7, 2002

Of Phoenix, AZ, was called home to God on Sat., March 23, 2002. Dick was born the son of Larry and the late Marie Schutte of Elm Grove, WI on May 8, 1951. He is survived by his father and his brother, Dan (partner, Mike Gale) of San Francisco. Visitation at ST. MARY'S CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1260 Church St., Elm Grove, Wed., April 10, 9-10:30 AM. Mass of Christian Burial at 10:30 AM. Burial St. Mary's Cemetery, Elm Grove. condolences to www.krausefuneralhome.com KRAUSE FUNERAL HOME and Cremation Services 9000 W. CAPITOL DR. 414-464-4640

*******************************************So...

...the debate over whether the obituaries even exist, and whether the Dan Schutte mentioned in these obituaries is indeed Dan Dchutte the former Jesuit and composer partnered to Mike Gale in San Francisco, is pretty much settled. And obviously, if Dan had his family include in a PAID obituary that he was a partnered male living in San Francisco with another male (which only means one thing in San Francisco), then he was not intending to keep this a "private matter," instead taking advantage of the deaths of his mother and brother to advertize it publicly!

What is particularly telling is the fifth comment on the post about the WHOIS search verifying the "partnered, San francisco" connection between Dan Schutte and Mike Gale:

On Sep 9th, 2004 the [VIVIFICAT] postershowed us Whois information proving that a certain Mike Gale was involved with administration for Dan Shutte's website through a connection to Pilgrim Music.

Just tonight, I wanted to verify whether this Whois information was correct, so I pulled up the records and what do I see? No Mike Gale listed. HOWEVER, the record for danschutte.com was updated on September 12th, 2004, 3 days after the poster made these statements. I then pulled up the Whois record for Pilgrim Music.com and sure enough, that record was updated on September 11th, 2004. Then I pulled up the record for mikegale.net and that too was updated on September 11th, 2004; however Mike made one fatal mistake. He forgot to remove the line "Pilgrim Music" from this record. At the end of my post, I have copied this whois record for all too see (just in case he now updates his whois info again.)

What does this prove? Mike Gale, or Dan Schutte is monitoring this website very closely, saw Dr. Polycarp's reference to the obituary posted on jsonline.com (The Milwauke Wisconsin's largest newspaper), and didn't like the comments about them being gay, so they tried to cover up for these facts by updating the whois records.

After taking advantage of the deaths of his mother and brother to advertize publicly that Dan is openly partnered to Mike Gale, why try to cover it up?

The only question left is...why bother pursuing this discussion to this point? Isn't this still just a "witch hunt" against Dan Schutte? Frankly, it IS gravely scandalous that a former Jesuit priest, who has broken his priestly vows and is living an intrinsically disordered lifestyle, is being paid by and supported by our dioceses and other Catholic institutions to perform liturgical music workshops.

Teofilo has addressed this aspect of the debate in the comments section of a prior post, and he expressed the issues far better than I could. So I repost his thoughts here as (hopefully!) our final word on the subject:

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I think you refuse to deal with the deeper issue here, Anonymous. The issue here is not Mr. Schutte's eternal destiny, or personal orthodoxy or orthopraxis elswhere in his life. The issue here is: should the Church be seen as indifferent and even set up as a model believer a gay person who does not live up to his call to chastity as a Catholic Christian. The Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states:

"2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,[140] tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."[141] They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

"2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. They do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

"2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection."

I don't have a problem with a homosexual Catholic person living in chastity. They can sing, they can compose, they can paint, they can contribute to the Church in meaningful ways. Heck, they're fellow Catholics. I do have a problem when certain Catholic pastors and believers blind themselves to our faith's moral demands in favor of respect for privacy and for just being nice.

Mr. Schutte's private life is the issue, because if he's not living in chastity as the moral teaching of the Church demands, how can he be made an example to the faithful? The distinction you make between his private life and his public persona may work with politicians in the public arena (e.g. "Bill Clinton may have been a womanizer and philaderer but he was a doggone good President"), but it doesn't wash when the universality of the Church's moral teaching is at stake.

If Catholic pastors, because of antipathy or indifference, refuse to make Christ's moral demands clear and applicable in all places times and situations when it comes to homosexual behavior, how can the Church take a consistent and coherent moral stance in matters of life and death, war and peace, and human rights and dignity?

It is all or nothing. The pastors of the Church, in virtue of their divine commission, are called to preach the Gospel "in season and out of season." It is depressing that mere lay people have to remind them of that fact periodically. But such is the influence of the spirit of this age.

I wish the best to Mr. Schutte. I do enjoy and play many of his songs. And I'll pray that all this business is clarified and is proven to be a big misundertanding. Yet,if it isn't and the allegations about his lifestyle are true, as I confess my own many sins in nightly prayer, I'll say a little prayer for his own conversion, healing, and return to the moral life of the Church as we all Catholic Christians are called to do in every circumnstance. -Theo

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Brian J. Kopp, DPM, is vice president of the Catholic Family Association of America, officer of the board of the Polycarp Research Institute, a member of the Catholic Media Coalition, and freelance Catholic writer.