The shoe has finally dropped…

Long scapegoated for the Catholic sex abuse scandal, despite many reports that show that sexual predators of both boys and girls are more likely to be heterosexual, gays who wish to enter the priesthood are no longer safe if they merely make a vow of celibacy.

The long-expected directive from the Vatican, only 21 paragraphs long, restates Church teaching that deep-seated homosexual tendencies are "objectively disordered" and that all homosexual acts are grave sins. The official English version of the document then adds:
"In light of such teaching, [the Vatican]...believes it necessary to state clearly that the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to Holy Orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture."

The document, an "instruction" by the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education, makes a difference between deep-seated homosexual tendencies and what it calls "the expression of a transitory problem." The report goes on, "Such tendencies must be clearly overcome at least three years before ordination to the deaconate.”

Clearly bad science (conversion and cure of homosexuality) has become bad doctrine.

Given the number of gay priests already serving, and the heroism of such celibate gay priests as Father Michal Judge, the NYFD chaplain who was one of the first victims of the World Trade Center bombings, one wonders how this directive will be received in the U.S., and how many priests will consider outing themselves in protest, as this directive appears to have no affect on them, only on those who are seeking to become priests.

And what the f*&^ is meant by “support the so-called gay culture”? If a seminarian watches “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” or buys and Elton John CD does this mean he can’t be a priest?

I grieve for the thousands of priests and seminarians who are harmed by this misguided, antediluvian directive from a hierarchy desperate to blame someone other than themselves for the tragedies of the past and unwilling to see that it’s own ‘head in the sand’ manner of dealing with both human sexuality and priestly power will not prevent the horrors of the past from recurring.