JOHN Thavis’s Vatican Letter on homosexuality and the priesthood (CL 24/3/02) states:
- That Church leaders are pressing harder for people of homosexual orientation/inclination to be screened out of the priesthood.
- That they just cannot be ordained.
- That they not be admitted to the seminary.
- That some ordinations be considered invalid because of homosexuality.
- That the homosexual orientation is intrinsically disordered.
All this presumably is an endeavour to combat the problem of sexual abuse of minors by clergy because “most publicised cases … have involved homosexual acts”.
I am appalled at such unjust and “off-the-mark” reasoning and doubly so as the article suggests that the Congregation for Catholic Education is involved in formulating a set of guidelines for seminaries based on these homophobic principles.
The problem of sexual abuse of minors by clergy is the same as it is in the wider community – it is paedophilia, which is “intrinsically disordered” whether committed by heterosexual or homosexual.
Why do Church leaders assume that it is only heterosexuals who are capable of keeping their vows of chastity and celibacy?
If Church leaders are intent on screening candidates for the priesthood they need to find ways of discerning those candidates who have been sexually abused themselves as children, because one of the great evils of paedophilia is that it is self-perpetuating.
Common sense tells us that there are homosexuals as well as heterosexuals among the many good and faithful priests who daily live their vows of chastity and celibacy.
For the Church to demand of homosexuals the “continuous heroic act and painful martyrdom” of chastity and celibacy, and then close its door on the one institution which should support them in their sublimation of self, is unjust and incredible.
VERONICA ROSS Bellbowrie, Qld
