The old lay about gay priests

[wiseheart]

The only slightly negative aspect of my recent birthday festivities is that in the excitement, I forgot to record a program on German TV on Sunday. They showed a report about the treating of homosexuality in the Catholic Church, and I wanted to see it. The newest thing is, that gay people can't become priests, while they expect from gay people to be "honest" about it and come out, thus making it impossible to follow their calling.

Now, I know there has been a lot of bad press concering priests, and a good percentage of it is probably true. But if we are assuming that children are endangered because of the simple fact that priests aren't allowed to have sex at all, why don't we assume that little girls are in just as much danger by straight priests? Why this frigging double morale again? Or do people think that straight priests have more than enough willing women who'd sleep with them anyway?

In my opinion, the Catholic Church should change some of her stupid, untimely rules that have nothing to do with bringing the Gospel to all people. They'd have a lot more priests that way - there are people, male and female, who would and could happily do the job but don't feel the calling to a life of rigind loneliness - and the priests would probably be a lot happier. Which would make the Gospel the more believable, I guess. And if someone still feels to be called for a life in celibacy, they could always become monks, nuns or hermits, for God's sake.

And people are wondering why I left the Church in all but by an official act.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

That sounds like an interesting program. I wonder if there will be an American version?

Oof. You've broached a complicated and difficult subject for not just the general populace, but many of the Catholic faithful. I think the short answer to the Church banning homosexual people from pursuing the priesthood is that it considers them to be "intrinsically disordered" and thus ineligible the same way that say, the mentally ill would be. There is no comparison between the two groups in any Church literature that I have seen, of course, but the fact that the result is still the same provokes a definite feeling of insult. I have not seen anything that attempts to justify it based on homosexual = pedophile. Certainly there were also little girls and young women who have brought lawsuits into the fray, so such an argument would hold no water anyway. And I have no doubt that there are homosexual priests who have managed celibacy as successfully as any heterosexual ones, and been holy and inspirational leaders. What position are they in now?

The thing about the Church is that its decisions are (usually) imminently logical based on what it believes. It's the core belief shaping the decision (in this case, homosexuality = "intrinsically disordered") that has to be undercut to make any headway in arguments.

Augh! I hope you have not lost all the warm, fuzzy feelings that your birthday brought to you! I was happy to see that your party went very well. (Mine was Monday also, as I mentioned in an earlier posting, but by contrast it was very quiet!)

Denise

[jilba.livejournal.com]

This whole subject is quite complex isn't it? I watched a program on the Catholic Church and priests, and the presenter after talking to many priests felt that in America at least, around 40% of priests were gay. Frankly, I don't think it matters one way or another if a priest is gay, straight, male, female, married or single. I mean a thousand years or so ago, I believe it was reasonably common for priests to marry!

Celibacy ought to be an individual choice, not forced on people. Honestly, I think married priests could understand the day to day life problems facing their flock a bit better.

As for the sexual abuse issues...that's a complex one. Again, this American program felt only about 5% of priests were sexual predators, about the same as the lay community. So, I suspect that sexual misbehaviour is a state of mind with some people and has nothing to do with occupations.

Plus I agree with updating the Church, bringing it into the 21st Century and they're be a lot more people going back. There is a small Catholic church at the end of my street, and I don't think anyone under 60 attends, and the church is not full by any means. Sad, really.