Well, that's a fine how do you do
The Vatican isn't going to let "active gays" become priests.
I knew this was coming, I heard about it on NPR awhile back. But there is so much wrong with this article I barely know where to start.
Practicing homosexuals, men with "deep-seated" gay tendencies and those who support gay culture should not be allowed to enter the Roman Catholic priesthood, according to an eagerly awaited Vatican document.
"Support gay culture"? What does that even mean? Does owning a Bette Midler or Franz Ferdinand album disqualify you from the priesthood? Watching Queer Eye? Having gay friends?
According to the article, the Church "will allow men who have "clearly overcome" homosexual tendencies for at least three years to proceed toward the priesthood."
Frankly, I think this part is a good idea. I just think it should apply equally to all potential priests. I think a man probably should give up sex for a few years prior to committing to lifelong celibacy, just to be sure he can do it. No strippers or whores the night before ordination, it's a sound policy. I just don't see why it should apply more to gay men than to straight men. After all, if Father Paul would, if not a priest, have sex with another men, why is that any more a suggestion that he's unfit for the priesthood than the fact that Father Peter, if not a priest, would have sex with a woman? As long as neither of them do it, as long as they have truly given up that which they have renounced for the Church, then why should the kind of theoretical sex they're not having make a single bit of difference?
The answer is simple: unlike virtually all reputable mental health professionals these days, the Vatican considers homosexuality a disorder: "seminaries have a serious duty to see to it that candidates for the priesthood do not 'present disturbances of a sexual nature which are incompatible with the priesthood.' "
What's worse, what really makes my teeth gnash and my blood boil, is that they are scapegoating gays for their pedophilia problem, conflating homosexuality with pedophilia:
The document reinforces standing policy that many in the Church believe has not been properly enforced. Its urgency has been highlighted by the 2002 sexual abuse scandal in the United States, which involved mostly abuse of teenage boys by priests.
(emphasis mine)
I consider this position hateful, vile, ignorant, and promoting of intolerance. And the fact that Reuters simply reports that, without putting a distancing, "the Vatican says" or "according to some observers," only highlights the lies and misconceptions that are held and promoted by the mainstream media.
Homosexuality is NOT pedophilia. Homosexuality does not lie between heterosexuality and pedophilia on a scale of healthy to unhealthy sexual identities. Healthy homosexuality is no closer to pedophilia than healthy heterosexuality is to pedophilia. Sure, the majority of the victims in these sexual abuses cases have been male. That only indicates that most of the pedophiles who have become priests are pedophilic with regards to boys, or have more opportunities to abuse boys than girls... which may be part of what drew them to the priesthood in the first place.
Can you even imagine the incredulity that would result if the Vatican said, "Sorry, we can't let Joe become a priest. If he weren't a priest, he'd marry a woman, and that means he's not safe to be left alone with your young daughters"? People wouldn't know whether to be incensed or amused. It's so clearly fallacious that it doesn't even pass the laugh test. But somehow, they can say that very thing about gay men, and get away with it.
The Vatican is attempting to whitewash the Church's criminal complicity in the rape of children with an ill-targeted measure that won't protect them. In the process they're exploiting and sowing fear and hatred of an oppressed group. And it stinks to high heaven.
I knew this was coming, I heard about it on NPR awhile back. But there is so much wrong with this article I barely know where to start.
Practicing homosexuals, men with "deep-seated" gay tendencies and those who support gay culture should not be allowed to enter the Roman Catholic priesthood, according to an eagerly awaited Vatican document.
"Support gay culture"? What does that even mean? Does owning a Bette Midler or Franz Ferdinand album disqualify you from the priesthood? Watching Queer Eye? Having gay friends?
According to the article, the Church "will allow men who have "clearly overcome" homosexual tendencies for at least three years to proceed toward the priesthood."
Frankly, I think this part is a good idea. I just think it should apply equally to all potential priests. I think a man probably should give up sex for a few years prior to committing to lifelong celibacy, just to be sure he can do it. No strippers or whores the night before ordination, it's a sound policy. I just don't see why it should apply more to gay men than to straight men. After all, if Father Paul would, if not a priest, have sex with another men, why is that any more a suggestion that he's unfit for the priesthood than the fact that Father Peter, if not a priest, would have sex with a woman? As long as neither of them do it, as long as they have truly given up that which they have renounced for the Church, then why should the kind of theoretical sex they're not having make a single bit of difference?
The answer is simple: unlike virtually all reputable mental health professionals these days, the Vatican considers homosexuality a disorder: "seminaries have a serious duty to see to it that candidates for the priesthood do not 'present disturbances of a sexual nature which are incompatible with the priesthood.' "
What's worse, what really makes my teeth gnash and my blood boil, is that they are scapegoating gays for their pedophilia problem, conflating homosexuality with pedophilia:
The document reinforces standing policy that many in the Church believe has not been properly enforced. Its urgency has been highlighted by the 2002 sexual abuse scandal in the United States, which involved mostly abuse of teenage boys by priests.
(emphasis mine)
I consider this position hateful, vile, ignorant, and promoting of intolerance. And the fact that Reuters simply reports that, without putting a distancing, "the Vatican says" or "according to some observers," only highlights the lies and misconceptions that are held and promoted by the mainstream media.
Homosexuality is NOT pedophilia. Homosexuality does not lie between heterosexuality and pedophilia on a scale of healthy to unhealthy sexual identities. Healthy homosexuality is no closer to pedophilia than healthy heterosexuality is to pedophilia. Sure, the majority of the victims in these sexual abuses cases have been male. That only indicates that most of the pedophiles who have become priests are pedophilic with regards to boys, or have more opportunities to abuse boys than girls... which may be part of what drew them to the priesthood in the first place.
Can you even imagine the incredulity that would result if the Vatican said, "Sorry, we can't let Joe become a priest. If he weren't a priest, he'd marry a woman, and that means he's not safe to be left alone with your young daughters"? People wouldn't know whether to be incensed or amused. It's so clearly fallacious that it doesn't even pass the laugh test. But somehow, they can say that very thing about gay men, and get away with it.
The Vatican is attempting to whitewash the Church's criminal complicity in the rape of children with an ill-targeted measure that won't protect them. In the process they're exploiting and sowing fear and hatred of an oppressed group. And it stinks to high heaven.