[1] In a 1980 article in The New York Times title "Equal Rights on the Altar of God", Callahan opined that the church's policy against the ordination of women was driven by the desire among the exclusively male clergy for power, which is "sexually satisfying [with] a certain act of love and passion all its own, and priests cherish it as one game they can play", questioning "why should they share their little playing field" with women?
[2] These public challenges to Roman Catholic teaching led to a rebuke from the Church in 1979 and a removal from his post in Washington, D.C.[3] In an April 1989 press conference, Callahan stated that he had been told he would be dismissed by the Jesuits if he didn't drop his activities with the Quixote Center and the groups Priests for Equality and Catholics Speak Out that it sponsors.
[5] He received two formal canonical warning in May 1989, was ordered to desist from his activities at the Quixote Center and to cease his activities on behalf of Nicaragua and was asked by Superior General of the Society of Jesus Peter Hans Kolvenbach to refrain from making any "embarrassing" and "controversial" statements.
After completing college, he taught at the Jesuit-operated Fairfield University and received his ordination as a priest in 1965.
[1] A resident of Brentwood, Maryland, Callahan died at age 78 on July 5, 2010, due to complications of Parkinson's disease.