Posted on 11/29/2005 8:03:37 PM PST by presidio9
The Vatican's tougher stand on homosexuality has divided American Catholics, with some welcoming it as a renewal of a Church plagued by scandal and others warning it would further alienate Catholic leaders.
Reflecting the divisions foreseen by some churchmen and scholars, a Catholic priest in Arizona announced his resignation because of "aggressive anti-gay positions" at the Vatican and the U.S. Church.
"I could no longer stay in that institution with any amount of integrity," Rev. Leonard Walker, 58, told the Arizona Republic after resigning from the Queen of Peace Church.
Apparently trying to defuse controversy over the eight-page Vatican document officially released on Tuesday, the president of the U.S. Roman Catholic Church, Bishop William S. Skylstad, said priests with "homosexual inclinations" can be good priests and should not fear discussing the issue.
Widespread leaks of the document last week already prompted criticism by gay rights advocates and liberal Catholics who said the Vatican failed to address deeper problems that led to the U.S. scandal over pedophile priests that erupted in 2002.
Some Catholic scholars said the real issue was the Church's fixation on celibacy. Daniel Maguire, a professor of moral theology at Marquette, a Jesuit university in Wisconsin, described celibacy as a "failed experiment in human control."
"It's highly unrealistic," he said.
PRIEST SCANDAL
Skylstad, who sets the tone for Vatican edicts in the United States, sought to calm angry Catholics by stressing that the first major ruling of Pope Benedict's reign would not exclude gay men who dedicated themselves to the priesthood.
"Deep respect should be shown to all people irrespective of sexual orientation," Skylstad told Reuters in an interview. "But a person has to be deeply committed," he added.
The Vatican statement said homosexuals should be barred from entering the priesthood along with men with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies and those who support gay culture.
Homosexual tendencies must be clearly overcome at least three years before admission to the deaconate, a position a step short of priesthood, it said. Decisions on how to put this into practice rest in part with local Bishops, said Skylstad.
Brian Saint-Paul, senior editor of the Catholic journal CRISIS, described the document as "liberal" for allowing gays to continue to enter seminaries at all compared to a 1961 edict that barred all homosexuals outright but was poorly enforced.
"This leaves the door open for men with same-sex attractions...this is quite significant but it is one part of a larger approach to a renewal of the priesthood," he said.
He added that homosexuality and the pedophile priest scandal were clearly linked. His position is shared by other conservatives who point to a 2004 survey by John Jay College of Criminal Justice that found that, of 10,667 people abused by priests between 1950 and 2002, 81 percent were male.
The U.S-based Human Rights campaign called on U.S. Catholics to complain to their pastors and accused the Church of using homosexuals as scapegoats for the abuse scandals.
"We see it as more hypocrisy from an institution that is rapidly losing its credibility," said Marianne Duddy-Burke of gay and lesbian Catholic group Dignity USA in Boston.
In Arizona, Walker said he no longer felt comfortable "wearing the uniform" of priesthood. "It's like a Jew wearing a Nazi uniform," he said, declined to disclose his sexual orientation.
There are currently 64.8 million Catholics in the United States compared to 45.6 million in 1966 -- or 23 percent of the population compared to 24 percent in 1966, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate in Georgetown.
Do the Lutherans have this problem? I know that the Anglicans have also been beset by the "Lavender Mafia."
Ok, stop snickering.
Seriously, any "institution with any amount of integrity" would not want pro-homo pastors. Buh-bye. And don't let the door hit you as you swish and sway out.
"Vatican edict on gays divides U.S. Catholics"
Goats to the left; sheep to the right.
WooHoo!
Weed the garden and watch it bloom.
A queer wearing the vestments of a Priest is like a Jew wearing a Nazi uniform? Puleeease.
It seems to me he spending WAY too much time thinking about his genitals and what he'd like to do with them.... and far too little time thinking about his mission as a PRIEST.
Catholics who dont like it can always join the Episopalians or Methodists or Presbyterians etc.
Since the Catholic priesthood is filled with homosexual men who are chaste and who are serving God's people well, it stands to reason that the Church will continue to allow homosexuals into seminaries.
The document succeeds in warning bishops to eliminate the blatant, the flamboyant, the gay advocates. But there will still be homosexual men in the priesthood.
Queers and hard core leftists have killed off the Episcopal Church in the USA.
Sadly I'm one of those disenfranchised Episcopalians.
Note how neither Reuters nor the "Human Rights Campaign," seems to take issue with this comparison.
Yeah. How about that comparison.
Yep. It is becoming a problem in the Anglican Church.
Note that the libs and lefties are the loudest in decrying the homosexual abuses that have occurred, but want the Vatican to become more "progressive" in embracing homosexuality.
So far so good...
Brian Saint-Paul, senior editor of the Catholic journal CRISIS, described the document as "liberal" for allowing gays to continue to enter seminaries at all compared to a 1961 edict that barred all homosexuals outright but was poorly enforced.
???
I don't think it allows gays to enter the seminaries at all. Where does Brian see that????
Sexual preferrence ceases to be relevant for those who voluntarily forgo sexuality. If the priesthood forbade motorcycles, a priest might still like motorcycles, but he would cease to be a biker.
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