LunaPuella (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} lunapuella) wrote,@ 2005-09-30 23:47:00 |
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Vatican Readies Policy on Gay Priests
Document to Forbid Ordination but Not Clearly Define 'Homosexual'
Excerpts from article by Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 23, 2005; A03
The Vatican may soon issue a document saying homosexuals should not be ordained as priests, but without clearly defining the term "homosexual" or specifying how intrusively the church should look into the sexual background of seminary applicants, Vatican watchers and church officials said yesterday.
The Vatican most recently reiterated that position in 2002, when the Congregation for Divine Worship, its department in charge of the Catholic sacraments, said that "a homosexual person, or one with a homosexual tendency, is not fit to receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders."
An earlier draft that circulated in 2002 said that candidates with a "permanent, enduring" homosexual attraction should not be admitted to seminaries. But that language apparently has been dropped, leaving it unclear "where on the spectrum of sexuality -- from someone who once had a fleeting attraction 20 years ago, to someone who is actively involved in gay relationships right now -- seminaries are supposed to draw the line," Allen said.
"I think someone who is living a good, chaste life and may be fighting some temptations, but you don't even know what they are -- I don't see how that would be a problem for that person," he said. "But if someone is cruising gay bars and promoting a gay lifestyle, someone who is saying it's all right, that it doesn't matter whether you've got this attraction or not, those kinds of people . . . should be in a different walk of life."
A U.S. priest who says he is gay but celibate, and who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for his job, predicted that the document would push homosexual seminarians and priests further underground and ultimately be self-defeating.
"If you're not going to allow people to speak openly with their rectors and spiritual advisers and friends, if you drive it underground, you'll have less psychologically healthy men, not more healthy ones," he said. "In their effort to address the sexual abuse crisis, they're re-creating the precise kind of environment that gave rise to it."
The gay priest also said he deeply resented "this attempt to blame the whole pedophilia scandal on gay priests rather than on the bishops" who moved sexual abusers from parish to parish instead of reporting them to police.
"If that's going to be the policy of the church as the church seeks to be its best self, then I'm going to accept what the church tells me," Silva said. "On the other hand, I would have an awful lot of compassion for men who are holy, celibate, chaste and who are homosexual and have served the church well."
Document to Forbid Ordination but Not Clearly Define 'Homosexual'
Excerpts from article by Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 23, 2005; A03
The Vatican may soon issue a document saying homosexuals should not be ordained as priests, but without clearly defining the term "homosexual" or specifying how intrusively the church should look into the sexual background of seminary applicants, Vatican watchers and church officials said yesterday.
The Vatican most recently reiterated that position in 2002, when the Congregation for Divine Worship, its department in charge of the Catholic sacraments, said that "a homosexual person, or one with a homosexual tendency, is not fit to receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders."
An earlier draft that circulated in 2002 said that candidates with a "permanent, enduring" homosexual attraction should not be admitted to seminaries. But that language apparently has been dropped, leaving it unclear "where on the spectrum of sexuality -- from someone who once had a fleeting attraction 20 years ago, to someone who is actively involved in gay relationships right now -- seminaries are supposed to draw the line," Allen said.
"I think someone who is living a good, chaste life and may be fighting some temptations, but you don't even know what they are -- I don't see how that would be a problem for that person," he said. "But if someone is cruising gay bars and promoting a gay lifestyle, someone who is saying it's all right, that it doesn't matter whether you've got this attraction or not, those kinds of people . . . should be in a different walk of life."
A U.S. priest who says he is gay but celibate, and who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for his job, predicted that the document would push homosexual seminarians and priests further underground and ultimately be self-defeating.
"If you're not going to allow people to speak openly with their rectors and spiritual advisers and friends, if you drive it underground, you'll have less psychologically healthy men, not more healthy ones," he said. "In their effort to address the sexual abuse crisis, they're re-creating the precise kind of environment that gave rise to it."
The gay priest also said he deeply resented "this attempt to blame the whole pedophilia scandal on gay priests rather than on the bishops" who moved sexual abusers from parish to parish instead of reporting them to police.
"If that's going to be the policy of the church as the church seeks to be its best self, then I'm going to accept what the church tells me," Silva said. "On the other hand, I would have an awful lot of compassion for men who are holy, celibate, chaste and who are homosexual and have served the church well."
