The Gay Priest Problem, discusses (and criticizes) the persistence of homosexual activity by and among American Catholic priests and seminarians. It comes out swinging. In the second paragraph it references a Kansas City Star report:
The death rate of priests from AIDS is at least four times that of the general population, the newspaper said. Kansas City Bishop Raymond Boland says the AIDS deaths show that priests are human.
This is something I never really thought about—gay priests and seminarians who engage in anal intercourse should use condoms, just like the rest of us.
If you’re one of those who think the whole celibacy thing is creepy, this article explains why your skin sort of crawls.
The author is attacking the Catholic hierarchy hard, but from the right, as in this bare-knuckle passage:
From almost all sides one heard the complaint “Why doesn't somebody do something?” Why not indeed.
A large part of the answer is implicit in the remarkable response to the situation tendered by Bishop Boland. To aver that a priest shows he is human by dying of AIDS is to say either that yielding to this sort of temptation is something that might happen to any normal person or that it is somehow natural to our human state to engage in acts of passive consensual sodomy, from which the resultant infection takes its predictable course.
The author’s solution to this problem is to purge the clergy of all homosexuals and all who support gay sex in any way.
The solution proposed by Jesuit Watch is for the Catholic Church to completely revamp its sexual morality. [Catholic sexual morality would make sense if humans had the sex drive of pandas.]
Clerical Whispers estimates the number of gay priests at shocking levels.
Gay priests themselves—who, though admittedly partisan, admittedly also have unique access to the facts—commonly assure us that they are legion within the priesthood in general and well-represented even among bishops.
Obviously, they have an interest in exaggerating their numbers—for both psychological and political reasons. But the Kansas City Star series mentioned above notes that, of 26 novices who entered the Missouri Province of the Jesuit order in 1967 and 1968, only seven were eventually ordained priests. Of these seven, three have (to date) died of AIDS, and a fourth is an openly gay priest now working as an artist in New York.
Later, the author proposes specific steps. Talk about a hard-ass:
Restore simplicity to priestly life. Physical comfort is the oxygen that feeds the fires of homosexual indulgence. Cut it off.
When you enter a rectory, take a look at the liquor cabinet, the videos, the wardrobe, the slick magazines, and ask yourself, “Do I get the impression that the man who lives here is in the habit of saying no to himself?” If the answer is negative, the chances are that his life of chastity is in disorder as well. It goes without saying that reforming bishops should lead by example in this department and not simply exhort.
I believe it was J Sobrino, S.J., who scoffed at the idea of theology being written in air conditioned rooms.
Recently I mentioned this article to a lady (Lutheran) in my tennis group. “Oh,” she exclaimed, “my husband spent a year in a Paulist seminary. He said it’s all gay.”
Her kids went to St Ignatius, my alma, “but the Jesuits teach contraception,” she assured me.
4 comments:
The article referenced is an oldie, but goodie. The Catholic Church is its own worst enemy on the issue of celibacy because, simply put, the Church 'talks the talk, but doesn't walk the walk.' I myself (married female, practicing Catholic, albeit it of the salad bar variety) don't care if a priest is gay or not, and I'm assuming that a gay priest living in an order would have great difficulty remaining celibate much in the same way an alcoholic would have difficulty staying sober if working in a bar for a living. The temptation is just too great. The Church's stance on celibacy, married priests, and contraception will be its demise. I only wish the Church (and the laity who believes that celibacy and single priests are the cornerstones of our faith -- when in fact they're not) would wake up and smell the coffee and start focusing on and urge the Church to focus on social justice and eradicating hunger, poverty, and disease. For me the bottom line of my faith is 'treat others the same way you would expect to be treated.' (That includes gay priests, people.) Some of these other blogs where the biggest issue is liturgical dancers (they hate them) and what kind of wine pitchers were used on the altar and whether a priest wears a collar or not just don't get it, IMHO. Thanks for listening.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
One shocking thing, as you pointed out, was the vicious anti-gay tone of the C-Whispers article.
What angers me is that the Church's official teaching on the subject promotes gay teen suicide.
I sympathize with Catholics, such as yourself, who see the Church as an asset that could be used for social good, and don't want to abandon it to those who are into silk and gold.
Me again -- just want to add: that if we Catholics believe that the blood of Jesus washes away the sins of the world, how is it, according to the orthodox Catholics, that homosexuality is the ONLY 'sin' that can't be 'absolved'. (I use quotes because I don't believe being gay is a sin in the first place). The article refers to Fr. Cozzens's theory that the priesthood is becoming a 'gay profession.' If you ask me, it has been a 'gay profession', for way longer than many people would care to admit, simply by virtue of the 'living arrangements'. Again, who cares? I wonder how many orthodox Catholics would do some of the jobs the Jesuits do in AIDS hospices, inner-city schools, etc.
"What angers me is that the Church's official teaching on the subject promotes gay teen suicide."
That is ridiculous. There is nowhere in Church teaching that promotes ANY kind of suicide.
~A
Post a Comment