Part 2: Homosexual Culture Undercuts Priesthood

NewsMax ^ | 4-5-2002 | Phil Brennan

[miss marmelstein]

There is certainly not a "don't ask, don't tell" policy among Catholic laity. What you do have is straight peoples' tremendous naivete toward gay people. I don't know how many middle-aged or older women invariably think of obviously gay men as "nice" or "sensitive." Was there a conspiracy among Las Vegas audiences who refused to believe that Liberace was gay?? Most people simply don't recognize homosexuality when it stares them right in the face. Until they wise up and develop "gaydar", this will continue.

[BlackVeil]

You wrote that all this shows the danger of: "allowing homosexuals to be around teenage boys. Then that puts a damper on the whole idea of gay adoption ... " I do agree. I wrote a similar message once on a religious studies list, where someone was "celebrating" a gay adoption blessed in a liberal Catholic church. I wrote back saying do you realise that your Church will be sued in the future, by children abused in these relationships? The response by other listmembers was amazingly agressive, it was not just disagreeing, it was you CANNOT SAY THAT. Why not? We all know it's true.

[BlackVeil]

Yes, the English example is not the same as the US. Also, in the French Catholic Church I get the impression that gay men are not much found in the priesthood. French priests tend to be heterosexual in their transgressions. However, in French society there is a long-standing tolerance that some priests have mistresses, and these women have an accepted status, but not flaunted. Does anyone have any comments on these matters in other religions? I have read that there is a homosexual subculture in some Orthodox Jewish Yeshivas (noted SOME, and doubtless unknown to others) and this would make sense, given the strict segregation of the sexes. I have never read any proper sources on such relationships in Islamic colleges, but by my own observations - there is a certain type of patron relationship between devoted young male students and older Imams which look a bit ...

[Drew68]

The reason the media talks about pedophilia is because they don't want to use the words homosexual and statutory rape or abuse in the same sentence.

I was watching a program on MSNBC the other day and was amazed at the pains one of the guests took to tap-dance around the fact that all of the molestation victims were boys and none were girls. He kept repeating that a pedophile is a pedophile is a pedophile and the gender of the victim is irrelevant. When the other guest questioned as to why no girls had been molested, the first guest accused him of trying to turn the subject into a gay-bashing agenda. He never did answer the question.

[A CA Guy]

I've read this has been a pedophile situation.

Speaking for my area, it has been proven we have 6 priests with problems in the last 15 years.
That works out to 1/5th of 1%.

Zero is acceptable, but this attempt to call everything a homosexual culture is going to far from what I have read so far.

There are many against Christianity in the press that will use this to sell papers.

I also see a witch hunt forming.
This is getting to be like when after 9-11 people who were not family of the victims were trying to access disaster money.

Where there is money there will be lawyers and false folks trying to mix in with the real problems.

Not a good situation.

[A. Pole]

Yes, the English example is not the same as the US. Also, in the French Catholic Church I get the impression that gay men are not much found in the priesthood. French priests tend to be heterosexual in their transgressions. However, in French society there is a long-standing tolerance that some priests have mistresses, and these women have an accepted status, but not flaunted.

Same thing in Poland. In the most of seminaries, my friends told me there used to be a constant "hunt for homosexuals" to get them out of the closet and then to get them out the door. But I am told that in the last years this vigilance got lax. Maybe the scandal in America will be a warning and will work as a vaccine.

[FITZ]

That's why I think this will work out for the best. The Catholic Church will cleanse itself of homosexual priests who have shown any interest in boys, it will have to acknowledge there is a tendency of homosexuals to prefer boys of 14-16 years of age and be extremely careful about them. It should justify removal of all homosexuals from the Church ---at least ones ever caught not being celibate. This isn't pedophilia in the definition used by many which is young children below 10 or 12. I think it's pedophilia because I consider anyone below 18 to be a child --but I know there are gray areas on that. Either way, the Church should realize it is held to a different standard than the rest of society and must set itself apart.

[iranger]

You nailed it my friend!

[Palladin]

A big bump to put the current discussion about the Boston scandal into a larger context.

[ninenot]

There are a couple of reasons that CAN exist for the problem being 'covered up.' First possibility is that the Bishop is a bit naive and thinks that a lecture and a little rehab will stop the problem--'forgive/forget,' after all, is what the Bishops are supposed to be preaching.

The second possibility is that the Bishops are just as, ah, disoriented as are the priests--and the "I'll out you if you jail me" response was given.

Another, more technical problem, is that once ordained, a priest is a priest forever (sort of like marriage.)Thus, one could be reluctant to simply toss the guy into jail.

Recently the Vatican has been waving a document (1961) forbidding the ordination of homosexuals which was obviously ignored.

From these bits of info you may deduce that ignoring the Vatican document was deliberate--from which you could also deduce that at least a few of the Bishops in this country have an orientation problem, and are subject to blackmail.

Sorry mess, isn't it??

[ninenot]

Do not cast your pearls before the swine

Even more: don't send your pearls off with the swine for a weekend "retreat." (Lay off the flaming--I am a Catholic.)

[ninenot]

I live in a Diocese in the Upper Midwest. While the wildly inflated "50% are gay" numbers are tossed around with no proof whatsoever, TRUST ME when I say that in my Diocese, far more than 5% of the priests are gay. We have at least 15 in the last 10 years who 'disappeared,' either quietly or not-so-quietly; and there's more to come, according to my excellent source at the local newspaper.

Of course, our Bishop is a leader of the 'to hell with the Pope' gang in the USA--and it shows.