Posted on 07/27/2002 8:06:59 AM PDT by sinkspur
In all his years as a Catholic priest, he has never experienced anything so threatening to him and his ministry: being questioned and doubted, not for what he has done or what he believes, but for who he is.
He is a seasoned priest with a record of faithfulness and commitment to the Dallas-area parishes he has served.
He's also gay, although not many people know it: some friends and fellow priests, a number of whom also are gay.
With the scandal exploding in unexpected directions, no one hears the continued ticking louder or clearer than priests who are gay.
And rightly or wrongly, he is afraid these days as Roman Catholic leaders and laity continue to reel from the church's cover-up of sexual abuse and try to figure out which way to go from here.
"I'm terrified now," said the priest, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "People are trying to make oversimplified connections between sexual abuse and being gay, and they're saying, 'Let's get rid of all of them.'
"Any priest who is gay feels at risk. We're not used to living under suspicion. We're used to being trusted."
With the scandal exploding in unexpected directions, no one hears the continued ticking louder or clearer than priests who are gay. Their numbers, like those nationally, are significant in the Dallas Diocese, church officials said.
They hear the voices in the church that equate them with sexual abusers, and that want them out as part of a move to bring the priesthood in line with church teaching that homosexual acts are immoral.
More liberal Catholics say the church should embrace gay priests and end the secrecy before devoted priests are forced out or quit.
The waves of distrust already have broken at the steps of two parishes in the Dallas diocese, offering a look at how the church's next chapter may unfold.
Two priests – including the one who didn't want his name published – came under suspicion after a conservative group resurrected 2-year-old accusations that the men participated in a defunct Internet support group for gay priests.
The unidentified priest wasn't disciplined because he said nothing untoward; the other pastor stepped down because of sexually suggestive remarks about Hispanic men in an old e-mail.
To some, the priests' sin was – and is – being gay.
The call from American bishops for openness about past abuse has not extended to homosexuality itself and what many consider the ecclesiastical don't-ask-don't-tell policy for priests.
Instead, the rising tide of scandal has floated a fundamental question that could chart the church's course in years to come: What place does the Catholic Church want for gay priests?
"There's always been a good deal of sexual activity in the church from the top down, and not just homosexual activity," said psychotherapist and author A.W. Richard Sipe, a former priest who has studied clerical celibacy for 42 years. "What's changed is the revelation of that activity, including sexual abuse of minors. The secret system has been blasted open.
"The church is in a very funny position because its teaching says that homosexuality is so immoral, and the church has so many gay priests. The church could not function without gay priests."
Polarizing viewpoints
Homosexuality in the priesthood, shoved into the glare of public debate, is polarizing viewpoints inside the church and out. Many moderates and liberals contend that gays are being made scapegoats for a corrupt system in which bishops and priests abetted abusers by failing to expose them.
Many conservatives believe that gay priests are the root cause of the church's problems and all its layers of secrecy.
Last spring, Pope John Paul II's press secretary said that besides not ordaining gays, the church should consider removing gay priests.
A cardinal in Detroit recently said the church faced "not truly a pedophilia-type problem but a homosexual-type problem." The cardinal in Philadelphia prohibits gays from entering seminary.
Bishops, who determine which candidates get ordained in each diocese, are split over acceptance vs. a crackdown on gays. The Dallas Diocese does not weed out candidates because they are gay, although scrutiny is heavy, officials said.
A few bishops and at least one cardinal have said gays aren't suitable to become priests.
Vatican officials, after American cardinals met with the pope this spring, vowed to launch the first intensive seminary inspections in 20 years, concentrating on applicants' "suitability" and the schools' "fidelity" to church teachings.
Although some Catholics fear a sexually-oriented witch hunt to bar gays from ordination, orthodox groups consider such hurdles just what the priesthood needs.
"I think that has to happen, keeping homosexuals out of the seminaries and priesthood," said the Rev. Charles Dahlby, a priest in rural Illinois. "The church is desperately trying to avoid looking at that.
"The bishops haven't shown they have that courage."
Others worry that despite a new one-strike-and-out-of-public-ministry policy for abusive priests – adopted last month at the bishops conference in Dallas – unwarranted suspicion of gays threatens to drive them deeper into their closets.
"It's a very threatening climate right now," said Mark Jordan, an author and religion professor at Emory University in Atlanta. "These are priests who have never broken their vows of celibacy, and they're afraid of being taken out of ministry.
"Rather than focus on the institutional problem, people want to go after easy targets."
The focus on homosexuality, Mr. Jordan said, pre-empts the church from discussing more complex issues. He listed the climate of secrecy and clerical power, the discipline of celibacy and its frequent failures, church teachings on sexuality and a growing gay priesthood.
There's no definitive figure for the percentage of gay priests in America. The most rigorous studies estimate 30 percent to more than 50 percent. The latter figure comes from veteran researcher, professor and former seminary rector, Father Donald Cozzens.
Can't be ignored
In The Changing Face of the Priesthood, which openly discusses homosexuality, he said that although questions about gays in the priesthood may seem homophobic, "the proverbial elephant in the living room" can't be ignored. "The longer the delay, the greater the harm to the priesthood and to the church," he said.
Catholic officials must distinguish between priests, gay or straight, who struggle and sometimes fail to remain celibate and those who exploit the priesthood for the cover it provides or its gay network, he said.
To lay activist Stephen Brady, there must be no such distinction.
"Gays should not be ordained," said Mr. Brady, a restaurateur from Illinois who heads a group called Roman Catholic Faithful. "There is justifiable discrimination against a homosexual. The church teaches that."
Parts of the church's stance on gays seem colored in gray.
Opponents of gay ordination often cite a 1961 Vatican document that said gays should not be ordained. The document, "Careful Selection and Training of Candidates for the States of Perfection and Sacred Orders," isn't widely known among Catholics.
Mr. Brady says bishops have virtually ignored that document. Bishops say canon law never specifically prohibited gays from being priests.
Homosexual acts, on the other hand, have always been immoral in the eyes of the church since they can't create life.
In 1975, a Vatican document, "Declaration on Certain Problems of Sexual Ethics," indicated that simply being gay – without sexual activity – isn't sinful. That was followed by another document that said homosexuality is "intrinsically disordered," which gets conflicting interpretations.
The church needs to clarify all this, Mr. Brady said, "so we know where the hell we stand."
Last month, he used the bishops conference to recirculate charges that Catholic officials have overly protected gay priests, including 10 that his group identified by monitoring e-mails at an Internet site.
Confession wasn't enough for the Rev. Cliff Garner, who apologized to parishioners at St. Pius X Catholic Church in East Dallas for a 1999 message about Hispanic men. It said, in part, "I do have a very special place in my heart for those Latin blooded ones!"
Among more than 300 people who attended, some were forgiving; others wanted him removed.
Father Garner asked to leave the East Dallas parish after an anonymous threat to hurt him.
This month, the pastor at St. Pius criticized parishioners for "the hate and vengeance exhibited by some people."
'What a tragedy'
"When Father Cliff begged for forgiveness, some yelled, 'How many times are we supposed to forgive?' " Monsignor Larry Pichard wrote. "What a tragedy for our parish! What a tragedy for Father Cliff!" Those close to Father Garner said the priest was traumatized and wouldn't comment.
"We just need to let him rest and let him heal," Father Pichard said.
Mr. Brady said he got no satisfaction from the victory. He blamed both Father Garner, whom he said "brought this on himself" with his comments, and higher-ups who allowed him to become and remain a priest.
"I'm not saying he's evil. I'm saying he doesn't belong as a Catholic priest," Mr. Brady said. "I feel sorry for him because he was lied to all along.
"The fact that the bishops are unwilling to discuss the homosexual issue is an indictment against them."
Like many of his peers, Dallas Coadjutor Bishop Joseph Galante concludes that the sexual orientation of a priest or seminarian is irrelevant; they should have "psycho-sexual maturity" and be spiritually and socially healthy.
This moderate view emphasizes that whether homosexual or heterosexual, a priest must fulfill his call to a celibate, chaste life.
Sexual orientation "becomes a moot point," Bishop Galante said, adding that a priest shouldn't think of or identify himself as "a gay priest," as though that were his defining quality.
"I don't like hyphenated priests," the bishop said.
He played down the fears of some priests that being gay has made them targets.
"If they're not acting out, if they're living a devout good life, they have no reason to be fearful," he said. "There are no grounds to remove anybody. They can't be punished."
Some Catholics, however, see an inherent risk in affording gays the respect of the cloth.
Although he acknowledged that many fine, celibate priests are gay, Father Dahlby said he would close the priesthood to gays if he could.
"We don't know they'll have the spirituality to live a celibate life, and we're surrounding them with incredible temptations," he said. "It's unfair to them."
Those who blame gays for the crisis often assert that most of the victims were teenage boys, not children.
Others say that there are no statistics on the victims, which include many females – girls as well as women – and that the crisis is about abuse, not homosexuality.
Many of the worst abusers came through the old seminary system as teenagers in the 1960s and '70s.
'Bing Crosby priests'
"These were Bing Crosby priests," Mr. Jordan said, "products of the supposedly ideal period of American Catholicism." Yet they seem to have had sexual problems as teens that went unresolved and arrested their development, said Monsignor Francis Maniscalco, a spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
"This may be a question of late adolescent behavior and accessibility to victims as much as fixed gender orientation," he said.
Mr. Jordan said the church's mishandling of the crisis is ominous.
"The abuse is not coming from out priests," he said. "It's coming from tightly closeted priests who won't be targeted.
"Five years from now, when the seminaries have been investigated and troublesome priests have been ousted, we'll have another rash of abuse cases."
Transcending his own apprehension, the Dallas-area priest who didn't want to be identified expressed hope.
"As scandalous and unsettling as this is, it's not new in the church's history. The church survives," he said. "A period of renewal ultimately will follow from all this ugliness, a period of grace.
"I can not believe otherwise. God's grace pervades all."
This formulation is quite widespread in defense of the proposition that gay priests per se are OK, but that "immaturity" is the problem.
What's wrong with this is that same-sex attraction and sodomy are specifically not a common "late adolescent behavior".
The Church (yes, that Church) teaches that homosexuality is intrinsically disordered and that homosexuals should not be priests.
Right or wrong, the RCC has the right to believe this, and to teach it.
Why so many gays have a longing to be priests of an organization that teaches this is, I confess, somewhat of a mystery to me.
Again, the Church teaches that gay men and women are disordered. Right or wrong, they should not have disordered men as priests.
If it is true that the Church could not function without gay priests, perhaps the formulation that they are disordered is incorrect.
Or, alternatively, it is not true that the Church could not eliminate gay priests and continue to thrive.
These two possibilities may be mutually exclusive.
Exactly, and Bishop Galante said the same thing above.
Gay or straight, if a priest can't abide celibacy he should leave the priesthood.
If a priest CAN be celibate, then who would know or care what his orientation is?
""The abuse is not coming from out priests," he said. "It's coming from tightly closeted priests who won't be targeted."
This is simply the classic liberal double talk. Give us our way and things will be better.
Let all the priests "come-OUT", you know let everyone know they are "flaming gays" and everything will be OK, then. The priests will parade around in leathers and look like the Village People and then you can trust you children with them.
They want the children because without them there won't be another generation of GAY PRIESTS!!!
Because it has nothing to do with the actual act, it has to do with the condition of one's heart. It is such a perverted thing for someone who supposedly believes in Christ to be leading people and instructing them on Christ's teaching to pervert the scriptural passages for their own justifications...DEBASED SELFISHNESS
BTW, No different for adulturer's or child molester's.
See my post #6.
It is about the next generation and that is what the RCC or any religon is all about continuing the religon. Without being able to influence the children then you don't have much of a movement.
The Gay movement in the Catholic Church is able to get to many more kids than the annual Gay Parade in San Francisco.
To some extent the gay men who are lead to the priesthood don't really understand their "calling" till much latter in their career.
If a priest is not teaching Catholic Doctrine, then he should be disciplined, or suspended.
Did you read the article? Have you been reading ANY article in the last six months? There are likely thousands of gay priests in the United States, like the one above. No one knows their sexual orientation, outside of a few. The idea of some massive witchhunt to root out gay priests who are observing the law of celibacy is absurd and is NOT going to happen.
I disagree.
I think it is possible to repent of adultery, to seek amendment of life, and in essence, to "go and sin no more".
It is most unusual (I don't think it occurs at all) for Christians who have committed this sin to preach that it is a good thing, or that the Church should bless adulterous relationships, or that it should place unrepentant and public adulterers in positions of authority and respect.
The gay priest problem is exactly this-advocates of gay priests (and of divorce) do not seek repentance and change-they want the Church to proclaim from the rooftops that bad is good.
Oh, I agree. The point I was making is sin is sin. Aldultury is no less a sin than homosexuality. A lust in the heart is a lust in the heart.
Then how can the priest in the article say this "Any priest who is gay feels at risk. We're not used to living under suspicion. We're used to being trusted." - it must be a topic of conversation among the homosexual priests or the speaker has taken it upon himself to speak for all homosexual priests.
No one knows you are homosexual or heterosexual unless you bring it up.
Adultery is no less of a sin than sodomy with a member of the same sex.
But an adulterer does not claim that he is free of sin because adultery is his "orientation" (at least, not usually). All men, and all women, are adulterers in this sense.
Doing it, OTOH, is a major sin.
The modern invention of "orientation" towards same-sex acts tries to eliminate the distinction between a tendency towards sin (which we all share) and acting out one particular sin, in this case, sodomy.
This makes no sense at all. The only "out" priests we know of are the ones who did the abusing. And we didn't know they were homosexual until they were "outed" by the victims. What other "out" priests is he talking about?
God, forbid a comment is made that pisses you off!:-) Look, whether or not Catholics know thier priest are gay and celebate is not the problem...There are too many priest already trying to pervert the word to fit their own ideas. Do you really think celibate GAY priest promote biblical teachings?
That's my point...
Well, that's the question, all right.
Can a priest inclined toward sin serve faithfully? Can there be a priest who is not so inclined?
The Bible teaches that to lie with a man as with a woman is an abomination.
If you think about it, but don't do it, and you are heartily sorry before God, I think you can be a fine priest.
If you think God is wrong about this, and you aren't-that probably limits your priestly usefulness.
Exactly my point. That's where the perversion lies for anyone claiming to think the word promotes "orientation" and it absolves you of the sin of Homosexuality.
Where is the repentance in that? Where is the "changing of one's mind?"
The "act" is not a requirement for the sin.
What are you referring too? Are you saying you can be gay and be sorry to God for being Gay, and make a fine priest?
Really?
Perhaps due to the current % actively in Holy Orders--but should Bishops actually implement the 1961 document, that will change.
As to currently-serving homosexuals: if they "act out," TOSS 'EM!
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