Posted on 04/03/2002 10:49:38 AM PST by Antoninus
The Good Catholic's Response to Bad Priests
Claudio R. Salvucci
April 3, 2002
Our sex-obsessed culture has deluded itself with the ridiculous Freudian error that every sexual thought or fantasy not acted upon is a repression.
So muddled with lust have we become, so enslaved to our own self-gratification, that too many of us can no longer even conceive of a life lived in virginal purity. We see no dignity in it, only a condition to be pitied.
So some are suggesting that the Catholic priesthood, in the face of all the recent scandals, accept those ideas and make a grudging concession to human lust.
And that is exactly wrong.
It was precisely by conceding to lust in the first place that the priesthood got into this awful mess.
One curiously omitted question emerges from all of these so-called pedophilia scandals: Why do an estimated 80-90 percent of the victims of these molestations happen to be teen-age boys? True pedophiles tend to prey on pre-pubescent members of the opposite sex - not same-sex adolescents, which characterizes a different disorder called ephebophilia.
Many of us obedient Catholics, so ready to grant priests and bishops the benefit of the doubt, are now slowly becoming aware of a vast gay network quietly tolerated in the seminaries, the priesthood and even in the highest levels of church hierarchy.
Two respected and highly acclaimed books: Fr. Donald Cozzens' "The Changing Face of the Priesthood" and Michael Rose's "Goodbye! Good Men" frankly admit that the priesthood is "becoming a gay profession." Our local Catholic radio station, WISP 1570, recently featured a hard-hitting show describing how seminarians encountered difficulties for being "too masculine." St. Sebastian's Angels, a networking Website for gay priests, was only recently shut down. An anonymous priest interviewed by the Boston Globe described the sexual propositioning, harassment and intimidation he faced at the hands of a gay subculture in the seminary - "and I know guys who left because of it."
So what is to be done about this problem?
Some American bishops have adopted this idea that having homosexual inclinations doesn't matter in the seminary, that as long as the candidate lives in celibacy, there's no sin in the orientation. That is of course theologically true, but is it psychologically wise?
Suppose, analogously, we were to take a priest with the normal male attractions, and drop him right smack into a convent of nuns: eating, working, bathing, and sleeping among the opposite sex, 24 hours a day. Well, that would be sheer madness, utter insanity. Of course, we hope he wouldn't do anything to violate his chastity, but meanwhile we've vastly multiplied his near occasions to sin - the opportunities for sexual temptation to be enflamed and acted upon.
That is exactly what we are doing when we ordain gay men.
Folks, the monasteries and rectories are barracks in the army of Jesus Christ; housing men with a divine mission for which they need to be focused, clear-headed, and free from distraction. Just as in the military, a community of strong men provides the best environment for that condition to be met.
When homosexuality enters this system, the whole thing becomes utter bedlam. Suddenly, the opportunities for sex are numerous and immediate. Perhaps that is why the priesthood is said to be sought by some homosexual men.
Certainly, not every homosexual priest will act upon his temptations, but what right do we have to put him in danger of doing so? Do we have no healthy respect for the weaknesses of human nature?
There is only one solution here, and it is this: the seminaries must refuse Holy Orders to those with same-sex attractions. Not just for the overall good of the priesthood, but for the good of their own souls. For it is no act of charity to let a man become a priest in this life, only to be tempted into damnation in the next.
Claudio Salvucci of Bristol reminds Catholics that the best thing to do for priests - good or bad - is to pray for them.
An archive of Salvucci's columns may be found at: The I, Claudio web site
Personally, I think that the laity should have some input on the suitability of candidates to the priesthood that will eventually serve them, just as they're supposed to have some say over the candidates for marriage (the purpose of posting the marriage bans, no?). But this presumes a much more active participation in parish life than I, for one, am accustomed to.But does the Church have no right to eliminate the wolves that have infiltrated the flock?Yes. But it must not done by people like myself or you or Sinkspur, the Boston Glod and the like. It must be done by those to whom God has entrusted the care of the Church i.e. the bishops with the Holy Father.
WE are the Church, Renatus. This "pray, pay, and obey" mentality that you seem to have is not the norm in most Catholic parishes, nor should it be.
. I repeat, should the bishops fail let God handled it.
You're not this naive, are you? We should let the men who are responsible for the mess clean up the mess without some involvement from those on whom the predators they've covered up for have preyed?
Not on your life!
We've let God "handle it" up to this point, and look where we are. God works through men, and not just ordained or consecrated men. He works through the men who pay the bills and sit in the pews and clean the Church.
We're going to have to insist that priests and bishops are accountable, and not just to themselves, or we'll have district attorneys interviewing candidates for the priesthood.
I still don't want women priests. Can you imagine going to someone like Dr. Laura for confession? ;-).
I think the church has already caved in to women and has welcomed them as window dressing so they can say to the world, "See, we like women and want to work with them." What I have seen is that many, many of these women are on ego trips and power hungry. Some are compensated with salaries and others must serve for nothing. They will never be satisfied and the competition between them is already out of the ball park to get recognition and prized parish positions.
The dichotomy between what I feel about womens' status and being allowed in the priesthood really doesn't square very well. It's a visceral thing with me, I guess. You want to go to a man for confession but you want to go to a woman for intimate personal issues.
As to altar servers, maybe they should have limited that to adults. It appears the reason boy altar servers were instituted was solely to groom young boys to want to become priests. I don't believe young boys serve in the Orthodox church. Which is neither here nor there but it seems to be a tradition, small t, that has developed in the west.
Can't you hear the media frenzy if they start culling out homosexuals?!?!
Many of them, and women, too, just want to be friends. Even that gets to be a problem because of gossip and appearances. The church does need strong masculine leadership; however, at the same time I don't like to think about going back to being so hard on people like they used to be.
I think Catholics would GLADLY give more. Catholics are the biggest skinflints in all of organized religion; I haven't heard a sermon on proper stewardship in ten years.
If Catholics came to expect "the cream of the crop" when it came to priests who serve them, perhaps they wouldn't expect them to live in poverty.
I think this makes the best fit with Sacred Tradition.
Look, if the church can get enough worthy men to be celibate, that would be the best solution. It appears they cannot at this period in history. In such a case you would think everyone would prefer the lesser of the evils.
I think church leaders shouldn't get smug about thinking that everything they do is pleasing to God. Maybe he sees things differently. Sometimes I wonder what He really thinks about the church, its organization, rules, structure, treasures.
Sometimes I also wonder if the real Virgin Mary wants all those expensive crowns and jewels.
That was in NYC. Today, living in Southern California, I have not come across such personalities. Maybe some day, we can say the same for the sexual abusers of both men and women - that they are no longer here.
But that's just the problem....it will not be rooted out. They have not the stomach for the fight that would ensue. I can hear it now: Why if it's OK to have openly homosexual scout leaders, why not priests?
Neither the Pope nor the Cardinals nor the Bishops have offered any evidience that they are serious about eliminating this cancer from the priesthood. They are allowing the institution to sink deeper and deeper into the cesspool and have not dared to even identify it for what it is, instead choosing to hide behind that false lable of pedophilia.
Rather than root it out, they ask for ever more money (some of which will go to pay reparations if not hush money--even while it is still on-going!) and for forgiveness for those aflicted under the guise that this is a sickness and not a perversion. Just let them try to claim that homosexuality is a sickness. Then you would see the mainstream press come alive, and not just to gloat.
Practicing Catholics are left with only one way to protest, to let their deep dissatisfaction with the leadership's failure be felt: stop giving. This is the only thing the Church understands. Nothing else will work.
Some of them are really mean. Maybe they can retire them after they clean up the present mess ;-).
Most of them are really nice to people. Sometimes they are almost too nice.
The mean ones really do a lot of damage to souls, I think. I know mine is scarred from just that.
It's inevitable that personalities come into play, especially concerning confession.
I'm glad that your experience in LA has been warmer. Maybe it's the weather ;-).
Yes. I'm naive enough to believe that God can handle the problem.
And he will do that exactly how?
I'm not sure I understand you. Not to overdo sex within a marriage, perhaps, but certainly not to avoid it. Maybe it's just a semantic thing on the meaning of chaste. I've always taken it to connote abstention.
You chose to answer only ONE of my arguments...what about the others.
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