Gay Priests

Vatican Document Sets New Rules on Gays in Seminaries
“There are people on the right wing who from the beginning saw this document as a kind of magic wand that would remove the taint of the sex abuse scandal,” said the Rev. John A. Coleman, a Jesuit sociologist at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “I think that’s wishful thinking — and pretty stupid.”

Amen, brother. Errr…. Father.

To begin with, the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church is about pedophilia — not about homosexuality. True, some pedophiles have sexual feelings towards children of their own gender, but contrary to what some ignorant people believe, pedophilia is NOT an intrinsic component of homosexuality. Normal people seek intimate relationships with people who are their equals. There’s no equality in a relationship between an adult and a child. Pedophilia’s abnormal — inherently abusive. Not so, homosexual relationships between adults. Anyway, so people who think prohibiting gay men from entering the priesthood is going to solve the problem of priests abusing children are just plain ignorant.

It shouldn’t make any difference whether a man who wants to become a Roman Catholic priest is straight or gay. Either way, they’re supposed to be practicing celibacy. It’s not like gay men are somehow less able to control their sexual urges than straight men.

“The Vatican has made a wise decision to come down in the middle of the road on this dispute. This new document acknowledges the incompatibility of active homosexuality with the priesthood but does leave the door open to men who have been able to live chastely with their same-sex attraction,” said Brian Saint-Paul, editor of Crisis, a Washington-based Catholic journal.

The thing is, that’s not what the document says. It says “[The Church] cannot admit to the seminary and the sacred orders those who practice homosexuality, present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support so-called gay culture…”. So, a person can have been a completely chaste and celibate gay person and STILL not be admitted to the seminary if he identifies as a gay person. I’m sorry to say it, because there’s much I love about the Catholic Church, but that’s just wrong. And cruel. There are good, caring, deeply devout men — who happen to be gay — who would be wonderful priests.

“There are many wonderful and excellent priests in the Church who have a gay orientation, are chaste and celibate, and are very effective ministers of the Gospel,” Spokane Bishop William S. Skylstad, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, wrote in his diocesan newspaper on Oct. 28. “Witchhunts and gay bashing have no place in the Church.”

Cool.

Posted by RebeccaHartong on November 23, 2005 under Uncategorized

2 Comments to Read

I have met actively (yes, actively) heterosexual priests AND actively homosexual priests, all in the same city. You know what the difference is? The gay priests actually have a sense of SHAME about what they are doing! They have a deep need to convert their lives daily and struggle in a way that the actively heterosexual priests didn’t. Worse, the activiely heterosexual priests like to tap into the accessible vulnerable female in their own parish, whereas the gay priests opted to practice their duality farther away where they wouldn’t be known.

All this says one thing to me. Remember the story of the publican and the Pharisee? Kinda like that.

Moreover, the creeps (note, I didn’t say priests, because they AREN’T) that indulge in pedophelia are parasitic predators that should never be granted protection by the Catholic Church. They are NOT priests with a problem. They are sick human beings who were incapable of committing to the priesthood in the first place.

I am in favor of an annulment process for the priesthood. If it is possible for the Church to not clearly know the true intentions of a couple who come for marriage and are later divorced because of an impediment, then the Church may be in the same situation with her priests!