scuttlebutt

chris just posted some of his thoughts regarding the new scuttlebutt that's going on around a potential document that will be coming out from the catholic church regarding gays being banned from becoming catholic priests. i agree with what chris says so read his post.

i also want to add my two cents by also quoting an email that i sent to our young adult catholic listerserv at st. thomas more.

it is curious to me that there has been no talk (and i
may be wrong on this, but at least i have heard no
talk) about similar rules/changes to the female
religious life. certainly there are similar
percentages (if not larger?) of nuns who are lesbian.
yet there seems to be no issue with this on the part
of the church hierarchy (or at least not a big enough
issue to make them change the rules, like we're
potentially seeing in the priesthood).

it seems to me that this is the continuation of the
stereotype that has existed throughout recent history
which believes that lesbian women are innocuous and
gay men are a threat. clearly the same physical,
emotional, spiritual, etc. reaction/connection is
present whether you're a gay man attracted to another
man or a lesbian woman attracted to another woman (or
among heterosexuals for that matter). but the thought
of men being attracted to other men has in recent
society been looked upon as more deviant and as a
threat to individuals and society than lesbianism.
which is where the incorrect and extremely hurtful
misconception of gay men being sexually deviant and
pedophiles comes from. it is from fear and
misunderstanding.

if this ruling is indeed a reaction to the church
sex abuse scandal, perhaps our church fathers should be looking at how sexual
morality is taught in the seminary, or how the call to
celebacy is handled and how to help support priests
throughout their life to continue this difficult call.
pedophelia is a very serious psychological disorder
and is not to be taken lightly. i think it is really
easy to scapegoat people as an easy out. it is more
difficult for the church to look at themselves and
question how did they help create a subculture where
this kind of behavior was tolerated and hidden. and
even harder to figure out how to move away from this
and strengthen our church fathers and heal our
community.

so obviously i feel that this is the wrong way for the
church to go about this whole process. the church as
an institution changes very slowly (which i think is a
good thing). but what is happening is that society has
changed so rapidly, and with it the people within the
church are also changing. the church has not developed
an effective method to help our priests make the
cultural transition which must happen to live the life
of a father in our traditional catholic church.

for more information on the supposed document you can see this site or this site.