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To: Crackingham

The Inquisition, what a show.
The Inquisition, here we go.


20 posted on 09/15/2005 8:05:35 AM PDT by numberonepal (Don't Even Think About Treading On Me)
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To: numberonepal
This is no "Inquisition." It's a matter of pastoral sensitivity toward people who are striving for holiness, as I would hope any candidate for the priesthood would be.

Everyone struggles with sin. A "struggler" could be one who struggled with homosexuality, or the more typical kinds of lust, or alcoholism, or any other moral difficulty. It DOES include everybody: even Jesus was "tempted in every way that we are" and is even said to have "suffered" from it (See 2 Corinthians 1:3-5.)

I guess it could be argued that since we're all strugglers, then men who struggle with homosexual tendencies shouldn't be excluded from consideration as potential priests, any more than any other man who struggles with "commonplace" lust, or alcohol (the Venerable Charles de Foucauld comes to mind on both counts) or any other besetting weakness.

On the other hand, the priesthood is a confraternity of men who often live together in close circumstances: in the seminary, for sure; in the monastery if they are in religious orders; and even in the rectory, where priests may live together in 2's or 3's or more, for years on end. This would present a life-long exposure to temptation, and thus (severe) suffering and (severe) moral risk, for a man who experienced acute emotional and sexual urges toward other men.

In all justice, you don't put a same-sex oriented man in a seminary, or an alcoholic in a brewery, or a carb-addict (like me) in a retail Krispy Kreme.

Not if you love him, respect him, and care for his soul's salvation.
34 posted on 09/16/2005 7:11:03 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (As always, striving for accuracy.)
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