Posted on 07/09/2005 3:52:02 AM PDT by maryz
John Allen's Word from Rome reports that the document on homosexual candidates for the priesthood is on the Pope's desk. The good news is that it's good news. The bad news is that it's bad news for a lot of men responsible for implementing it. Sound familiar?
Sources indicate that the long-awaited Vatican document on the admission of homosexuals to seminaries is now in the hands of Pope Benedict XVI. The document, which has been condensed from earlier versions, reasserts the response given by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2002, in response to a dubium submitted by a bishop on whether a homosexual could be ordained: "A homosexual person, or one with a homosexual tendency, is not fit to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders." ...Several American bishops were in Rome last week for the June 29 pallium ceremony, and I spoke to some of them about the document. Privately, some hope Benedict will decide to put the document in a desk drawer for the time being, on the grounds that it will generate controversy and negative press without changing anything in terms of existing discipline.
What d'you mean, "generate" controversy, your Grace? The controversy has been raging for years. The point of this document is to put an end to it -- as indeed it would, were most bishops disposed to be guided by its instructions.
As one bishop put it to me, the policy against ordaining homosexuals is already clear -- the only interesting question is, what do you mean by a "homosexual"?
If you have to ask, you don't want to understand the answer.
At one end of the continuum, it could refer to anyone who once had a fleeting same-sex attraction; at another, it could be restricted to someone who is sexually active and openly part of a "gay pride" movement. Most people would exclude those extremes, but where is the line drawn in between?
Well lads, there's almost certainly a "continuum" of attraction manifested in necrophilia and bestiality too, but to date seminaries haven't shipwrecked on the problem. When the formatores are free of the disorder themselves, and have no qualms about eliminating it, they manage to identify it without great hand-wringing.
Vatican sources have made clear the document will not enter into these details, and hence this bishop believes it's an unneeded headache.
A headache for whom? For the long-suffering laity? For good-willed and healthy seminarians? Nope. It's a headache for the bishops -- especially those bishops who are conflict averse or who have important personal PASTORAL reasons for keeping this particular issue -- and the Holy See's directives thereon -- far from the glare of the spotlight. In short, it looks like business as usual.
Ping!
- if he doesn't puke and then look around for somebody to punch in the mouth when he hears it suggested that men having sex with each other is "no biggie";
- if he drinks that beer he left open on the counter last night and enjoys the taste;
- if he ever thought that Tom Cruise was better looking than Tom Selleck;
- if he nods and smiles in agreement when a co-worker says to him, "Looks like somebody's got a case of the Mondays!";
- if he goes to the trouble of making up more than 5 items for a list like this.
Oh, fiddle!!!
WhereEVer will we GO to reCRUIT, dahling...?
How CAN we tell Ricky-poo he's OUT?
"Looks like somebody's got a case of the Mondays!"
One of the great movie lines of all time.
Thanks for the post, maryz!
---if he nods and smiles in agreement when a co-worker says to him, "Looks like somebody's got a case of the Mondays!---
An "Office Space" fan! Did you know the military now refers to the rows of medals and other battle ribbons/theater citations of old ("fruit salad" ) as "flair?" Honest!
Milton Waddams
"We we have here is a failure to communicate!"
+(the late) Strother Martin, Cool Hand Luke
"WHAT we have here is a failure to communicate!"
+(the late) Strother Martin, Cool Hand Luke
Sorry for the misquote
Hoping the bishops listen!
**What d'you mean, "generate" controversy, your Grace? The controversy has been raging for years. The point of this document is to put an end to it -- as indeed it would, were most bishops disposed to be guided by its instructions.**
"Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays!"
But this gives me a chance to make a comment about the use of the word 'homo' in my earlier post. Some might regard it as pejorative, but I don't. Homosexual men regularly refer to themselves as 'queer', which, to my ears, sounds quite negative. On the other hand, I deplore the use of the word 'gay' as an adjective describing a homosexual; 'gay' has had its original meaning completely displaced by politically correct style mandarins. I wonder what young people think nowadays when they first hear about 'The Gay Nineties' (if they do) or notice that Nietzsche wrote a book entitled The Gay Science (if they do)?
In any case, my earlier post was offered as a small amusement at the slight (but good-natured) expense of a certain segment of humanity. If there ever comes a time when the offense police suppress all such amusements, humor will have breathed its last.
P.S. to Frank: that Cool Hand Luke line is a great one, indeed. Here's the absolutely precise rendering of it:
"What we have here...is failure...to communicate."
For a long time, I thought there was an 'a' before 'failure', but there isn't. Another great Strother Martin line reading...
Pope: Priests Must Stay Celibate
Giving Thanks for the Good Shepherds ( A Defense of Priestly Celibacy)
Don't end celibacy for priests
The celibate superhero
Priestly Celibacy And Its Roots In Christ
How to Refute Arguments Against Priestly Celibacy
Priestly Celibacy Reflects Who - and Whose - We Are[Father George W.Rutler]
Celibacy
Tracing the Glorious Origins of Celibacy
God’s call to celibacy for the sake of His Kingdom - by Card. George
Vatican Says Celibacy Rule Nonnegotiable
Bishop Attacks Move to End Celibacy
A response to Fr. Joseph Wilson's defense of mandatory celibacy
The gift of Priestly celibacy as a sign of the charity of Christ, by Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Archbishop Dolan:"We Need to Be Renewing Our Pledge to Celibacy, Not Questioning It"
Celibacy is gift cherished by church
Celibacy Will Save the Priesthood
Celibacy Defended by EWTN's Fr. Levis
Call To Action: Dump Celibacy
The (Catholic) Church Has Always Prospered When Celibacy Is Honored
John Paul II Hails "Inestimable Value" of Priestly Celibacy
For Priests, Celibacy Is Not the Problem
Fr. Shannon Collins Discusses Celibacy
5 Arguments Against (Catholic) Priestly Celibacy and How to Refute Them
Why A Married Priesthood Won't Remedy the Priest Shortage
New Vatican Document on Homosexuality and the Priesthood Coming Before Fall 2005
Catholic priests demand the right to marry
Catholic priests urge Church to reconsider celibacy rules
Alternative Priests´ Council Hits Back on Mandatory Celibacy
Married Priests? The English Experience
Saying Yes to God: a Look into Vocations
New Vatican Document to Eliminate 1961 Papal Ban on Ordaining Homosexuals
Saying Yes to God: a Look into Vocations
Is it time to ordain married men to the Catholic priesthood?
40% of Scots priests want end to celibacy
A small, sturdy band of 'John Paul priests'(JPII legacy of conservative priests)
Yes, Gay Men Should Be Ordained
Cardinal says Priests will marry
Fathers, Husbands and Rebels: Married Priests
An Unneeded Headache (Vatican document on [NOT] admitting homosexual to the priesthood)
I forgot to say thanks for that interesting fact about 'flair'. I hadn't heard that!
The bishops point is nonsense and a direct attempt to cloud the issue. The document states that "homosexual men and men with homosexual tendencies are not fit to receive Holy Orders." Any conscious adult with an IQ greater than his foot size knows what that statement means.
More post Vatican II wishy washy do whatever we please garbage. There is canon law in place since 1961 forbidding the ordination of homosexuals, the only problem is that homosexuals fit very nicely into the new order of things, liberal, open to woman ordination, the New Mass, leanings towards modernism and Protestanism. They will never be expelled and the church is in disgrace cause of their sins with payouts of $1B and counting here in the US to date
Sounds like the telling could be a job for Recta..... ummmm, Rembert.
"What we have here...is failure...to communicate."
I have only seen this movie about 20 times so I may be wrong. Is there not a fabulous play on the word "here" so that it sounds to the ear as "hee-ya"?
The scene with Strother Martin playing the horse auctioneer to Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) in "True Grit" is also great. The dialog of that movie is one of kind. It also delivers another great quote:
"That's bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!"
==Robert Duvall (Ned Pepper) to Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne).
The rejoinder by Rooster is doubly memorable.
And there is John Wayne's monologue about his wife and son while he is intoxicated. Ahhh!
Frank
"Cloud the issue..."
Most likely the quoted Cardinal Grace-with-Lace meant to spray a little perfume on the issue--plenty to spare near the hot-tub, you know...
It's not a Canon Law.
It's a directive.
Given that, however, you are otherwise correct. They didn't earn the soubriquet "swish" because they have stiff backbones...
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