Futurechurch Blasts Recent Vatican Statement Banning Gay Men from the Seminary

http://www.futurechurch.org/StatementonGaySeminarians.htm ^ | 11-30-05

[Diago]

FutureChurch Statement on the Ban of Gay Seminarians

FutureChurch grieves that the recent Vatican statement banning gay men from the seminary will be wounding and alienating to many good priests who are gay. Like their straight brothers, most are dedicated, effective priests who are faithful to their celibacy promises.

The Church needs priests. If the new policy is enforced, the Church will lose a number of good seminarians. This will worsen the already severe priest shortage, limiting even further our ability to meet the immediate and long range pastoral and eucharistic needs of our people.

There are no data to support the idea that gay priests who have received the celibate charism are any less capable of living healthy lives than straight priests who have received the celibate charism.

By stating that the norms banning gay seminary candidates are “made more urgent by the current situation” the document implies that priests with a homosexual orientation were to blame for the clergy sex abuse crisis rather than the bishops who covered it up.

There is no credible evidence that gay men are more likely to molest children than heterosexual men. More than 70 per cent of men who molest boys rate themselves as heterosexual in their adult sexual preferences. Nine per cent report that they are equally heterosexual and homosexual. Only 8 per cent report that they are exclusively homosexual. The majority of men who molest boys are married, divorced, widowed or living with an adult partner. (According to “The Abel and Harlow Child Molestation Prevention Study” from The Stop Child Molestation Book, by Gene G. Abel, M.D., and Nora Harlow Xlibris 2001 Gene Abel is one of the foremost researchers in the area of child sexual abuse)

This policy will not necessarily keep gay men from entering the priesthood. It appears that many people do not understand their orientation until later in adult life. This policy will only drive the issue of orientation underground. This will only exacerbate the likelihood of unhealthy sexual development and behavior. The real issue is not one’s sexual orientation but whether or not one is able to live the celibate charism.

Our Church should welcome all the priestly vocations God sends, including those given to women and married men. The Catholic priesthood should reflect the same wondrous diversity that enriches and enlivens the People of God.

Resources and information Future of Priestly Ministry main page Optional Celibacy Survey Results Priest Shortage USA: 1976-2001 Bishops' conference discusses priest shortage

A Brief History of Celibacy in the Catholic Church Questions and Answers About Women's Ordination "Infallibility" and equality in Catholicism How to start a dialogue

Priest shortage statistics

Contact the cardinals campaign

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FutureChurch 15800 Montrose Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44111 USA Phone: 216.228.0869 | Fax: 216.228.4872 E-mail: info@futurechurch.org

Copyright © 2001-2004 FutureChurch all rights reserved

[Diago]

Note that Futurechurch has the same address as St. Mark's Parish in Cleveland:

From http://www.cleveland.catholicnet.com/parish/stmark/

St. Mark Church 15800 Montrose Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44111

It is nowover two years since Pilla issued his phony statement (just days before his ad limina visit with the Pope) claiming he was banning Futurechurch from diocesan property:

13 March 2003

STATEMENT OF THE DIOCESE OF CLEVELAND REGARDING AN ORGANIZATION KNOWN AS "FUTURE CHURCH"

"Future Church" (a.k.a. "FutureChurch" ) is not an organization affiliated with the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland nor does it have the support or approval of the Bishop of the Diocese. "Future Church" is an independent organization of individuals who promote an agenda that is not consistent with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, and who are fully responsible for the arrangement of their own programs and activities.

Based on the preceding statement, it is not appropriate for the activities and meetings of "Future Church" to be held in church related institutions and/or parish facilities.

[Claud]

If the new policy is enforced, the Church will lose a number of good seminarians.

What is usually prescribed for severe dementia?

[RonF]

More than 70 per cent of men who molest boys rate themselves as heterosexual in their adult sexual preferences. Nine per cent report that they are equally heterosexual and homosexual. Only 8 per cent report that they are exclusively homosexual.

And, of course, child molesters are to be believed when you start asking them questions about sex.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Future Church has my blessing to blast itself into the next world. They might learn a thing or two about man's will over God's will.

[Antoninus]

There is no credible evidence that gay men are more likely to molest children than heterosexual men. More than 70 per cent of men who molest boys rate themselves as heterosexual in their adult sexual preferences.

Let me get this straight--we're supposed to believe that most men who molest little boys or teenagers are not homosexuals? How stupid do they think we are, anyway?

[A.A. Cunningham]

There is no credible evidence that gay men are more likely to molest children than heterosexual men.

82% of all sexual abuse cases were male homosexual acts .

[Convert from ECUSA]

Humph. Memorandum from Virgnia to "future church:"

Dear "future church" - Zip it, there's the door, and don't let it hit you where the Good Lord split you!

[bornacatholic]

To see what "futurechurch" looks like, go to your nearest graveyard

[livius]

LOL! Fortunately, most of the "Futurechurch" crowd is in the Q-Tip brigade. Time will take care of them.

[Rosie405]

Once again, they are attempting to muddle the issue by talking about "child molestation." Many of the left-wing groups in this country have done that when discussing the crisis in the Catholic Church. However, we all now know that this was NOT a simple case of "child molestation." Over 80% of these cases involved post-pubescent, "teenage" molestation. And it involved mainly boys. Teenage boys, This is a vastly different kettle of fish than "child molestation, " yet the activists continue to attempt to confuse the public on this issue. It must be having some effect too, or else they would have dropped this tactic by now.

[Coleus]

Futurechurch>>

you mean Satan's church...

[Petronski]

Our Church should welcome all the priestly vocations God sends, including those given to women and married men.

Uhhhh, right.

Just go off and start your own damned church and keep your filthy hands off of His.

[Salvation]

Future Church is a dissenting group not in alignment with the Catholic Church

Our Lady's Warriors>Dissent>Organizations

 

FutureChurch

A regional parish-based coalition seeking to address the priest shortage. FutureChurch claims the remedy is the ordination of married men and women. FutureChurch engages in educational presentations to parishes, grass-roots organizations, and the media. Its current project is a nationally-promoted dialogue on an "inclusive priesthood." Member of Catholic Organizations for Renewal.

[capt.P]

'Our Church should welcome all the priestly vocations God sends, including those given to women and married men. '

There was a great quote attributed to a past Pope (I forget at the moment which one it was), when confronted by the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, who insisted that the church in Brazil would be lost forever if the celibacy requirement was not lifted immediately.
The Pontiff replied "If that is all that it would take for our church to fall in Brazil, then let it be lost."

As a layperson who is enthusiastically NOT celibate, I don't understand why groups like Futurechurch (What a name, too... they might as well call themselves "Churcheology") beat the same dead dog over and over again. Celibacy is a very little thing to practice when compared to the great goft of Holy Orders. Why is it that there aren't any groups which espouse ONLY revisiting either the issue of celibacy OR the ordination of women? Practicing Catholics have to be bombarded by this Wish List that reads like instructions from the IRS... the same thing, every year about the same time. Maybe I'll send Futurechurch an invitation to the local Unitarian church... they belong there.

[tuesday afternoon]

Interview With Cardinal Cottier on New Vatican Instruction:

Cardinal Cottier:There is a word that is never used and that, however, is important when we see the work that priests do; it is the word "ephebophilia."

It is not pedophilia, which is attraction to small boys, but refers to attraction to adolescents. It is a very ambiguous and decisive age for every one. And I think it is a very extended form of homosexuality.

[tuesday afternoon]

Catholics polarized by ruling against gays becoming priests:

Robert Goodkind, an Albuquerque, N.M., psychologist who for many years treated priests accused of sex abuse, said the higher percentage of male victims owes in part to an "overrepresentation" of gays in the priesthood compared with other occupations.

This is the only MSM article I've ever read where a psychologist admitted a connection between homosexuality and the priest molestations.

[Conservative til I die]

Who cares. I place about as much importance on the opinions of FutureChurch and their ilk as I do on any other Protestant sect.

[Conservative til I die]

Maybe my math is off, but they say 70% of molestor priests are heterosexual, and 8% are homosexual. I believe maybe 2% of priests are pederasts. In general society, 98% of people are heterosexual and 2% are homosexual. Just looking at all these numbers, it seems gays are disproportiantely pederasts vs. the general population.

[Desdemona]

Who cares. I place about as much importance on the opinions of FutureChurch and their ilk as I do on any other Protestant sect.

Ditto.