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.
Homosexuality has destroyed the Priesthood. There is no room for "being gay but not practicing." Homosexuality is akin to alcoholism. You must come to terms with it, acknowledge it as sin, and overcome it.
Homosexuality is a terrible sin, and it spreads, unless confronted, as all evil does.
Homosexuality is a "Gender Identity Disorder". I know. I suffered with it for years. Once the Catholic Church gets a real pair of ba... (so to speak), I may return to The Church. Toss 'em all out.
Bill is both financially and spiritually bankrupt. He is denying the authority of Rome. He is in defacto schism. Mind you, as he is my Bishop, I pray for him daily, but he gets NO financial support from me nor will he unless he returns to Tradition and Rome.
I could not agree with you more. No heterosexual or homosexual who is sexually active has any business in the priesthood.
"Neither the Lutherans nor the Anglicans require a vow of celibacy of their priests, but they have plenty of homosexual priests anyway, so I guess celibacy has nothing to do with it."
Shhhh, don't tell stinky. They also have shrinking memberships and financial abilities.
"No heterosexual or homosexual who is sexually active has any business in the priesthood."
Tell that to Bill, he doesn't get that.
I believe the ruling said that men with homosexual inclinations or 'orientation' would be allowed to enter the Seminary, but in order to be ordained, would have to have shown for at least 3 years prior to ordination that they had controlled that incliniation.
Uhhh, would those alienated Catholic leaders would be the ones participating in homosexual, child molestation?
He is head of the USCCB. And, Cardinal George, who is his likely successor, said much the same thing last week when this document was leaked.
Those who think bishops can afford to turn celibate homosexuals away from seminaries are living in a dream world.
And both were cleverly 'schooled' by the Jesuits, specifically, Father Robert Drinan, in order to reach their tortured conclusions about what is 'allowed' by the Catholic Faith.
Lutherans expect ALL unmarried clergy to be celibate.
"By their fruits ye shall know them."
"Sheepdogs, forward."
How about a German Shepherd... named Benedict.
Brian Saint-Paul is flat out wrong. The 1961 document stated, "[a]dvancement to religious vows and ordination should be barred to those who are afflicted with evil tendencies to homosexuality or pederasty, since for them the common life and the priestly ministry would constitute serious dangers."
At the time, "homophilia" was a widely used, accepted term. The document did not ban priesthood to those with homophilia, only a tendency towards homosexuality, which at the time was understood to mean acting on the impulse. What is a tendency? A recurring pattern of action? Does a "tendency towards homosexuality" actually preclude homophiles who have every intention of remaining celibate at all?
The current document is stated in a time when "homosexual" is understood to mean what "homophilia" meant. The current document bars ordination not only to homosexuals (those who have had gay sex), but is very clear that it also refers to homophiles (those whose are sexually attracted to other men). Further, it covers not only those who are presently homophilic, but those who have struggles with homophilia in the past three years.
The current document is much stronger than the past, it has much more force, and it is issued with the pope, not just a curial office.
Since the idea of celibacy seems to have become a big deal since the sexual abuse by Latin Rite priests, it is important to point out that there have been problems with sexual abuse in the Eastern Churches as well. That tells me that it is not celibacy that is the problem.
I also believe that if young men are prepared properly for a celibate life, they will be able to live it more fully and without the problems we've seen in the last 25 years or so. Since at least 1968, young men in some Seminaries were told by their wishful thinking, "in the Spirit of Vatican II", liberal professors that they wouldn't have to worry about living a celibate life because the Church was probably going to change that rule.
So many young men have been ordained under false pretenses. We can't expect them NOT to have problems with a life for which they were not prepared. Frankly I don't think it is the celibacy that is the biggest problem for most priests; it is LONELINESS, and that does not require a sexual solution.
I thin k this article is very deceptive. I do NOT think American Catholics are divided on this. American gays may be, but not American Catholics.
Not true. In parishes where the Traditional (Tridentine) Mass is celebrated, seminaries are full. More liberal parishes are the ones having trouble attracting priests.
The mind is the builder. The physical is the result.
"Those who think bishops can afford to turn celibate homosexuals away from seminaries are living in a dream world."
You can support oprdaining sexual deviants, I'll support the Eternal Church.
Perhaps the dream world is the fantasy that those who claim to follow Christ think they can pursue selfish sin on what they think are their terms.
God does not need to negotiate with us.
He told us what His standards are.
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