Bishop Removes Catholic Pastor for Homosexual Relationship
I posted a different article on this last May when it happened, but it's worth posting again. I find it encouraging that at least one bishop is taking seriously the problem of immoral homosexual adult relationships. Homosexuality in the priesthood is a serious problem. The homosexual worldview is disordered and skewed. Even if a priest isn't engaging in sex, he is in a constant environment of temptation because he is living intimately with the sex to which he is attracted. It is like a heterosexual priest living and spending all his time with women. Wouldn't more than a few eyebrows be raised?
Homosexual priests live a lie. Part of the virtue of a priest is that he gives up marriage and family to devote himself wholeheartedly in service to the family of God. But the homosexual doesn't give up anything. He enters the environment that appeals to him surrounded by other men. Thank God at least one bishop recognized that a priest engaging in homosexual sex cannot be allowed to remain in ministry. May many of his brother bishops imitate him. And may the Church recognize the need for a canon law that forbids homosexuals in the priesthood. Those already ordained should be banned from any position of authority.
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Concerning your statement: "the homosexual doesn't give up anything." I respecftully disagree. The man with homosexual orientation DOES give up marriage, it's just much easier for him in that he is usually not attracted to women. So, we must acknowledge that he still objectively gives it up (and even subjectively since I'm sure many men with homosexual tendencies intend to live chastely). But, I say objectively because it is important to counter they "gay marriage" lobby with the fact that self-identified gay people CAN marry, - as long as they accept what marriage is and its purpose in promoting the common good of society primarily by providing new citizens. The real issue is they want to redefine what marriage is.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with having a man with homosexual orientation ordained to priesthood is similar to ordaining someone with a proclivity to alcoholism, sex addiction, or to gambling. He has a disordered inclination, and even if he has the best intentions not to act upon it, the devil and the worldly will attempt to use this added weakness for his destruction. There is also the added problem of him with the homosexual orientation not being confident in his manhood. Thus, he finds it an extra struggle to stand as a self-possessed visible image the manhood of the man Jesus Christ not only exteriorly but interiorly.
You are correct that he may be tempted if he lives with another priest. But, that is more tangential, I think, since priests have private quarters and usually spend more time with parishioners (male and female) than with each other.
I don't see the problem with homosexual priests so long as they live chastely and do not advocate gay marriage. As you said, homosexual priests live with other priests of the sex to which they are attracted; if a homosexual can chastely live under those circumstances, then I would consider that individual to be very dedicated to God and their vocation. Also, a chaste homosexual priest could be a terrific role model for gay Catholics struggling to live a holy life.
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