Openly Gay Catholic Prit Discs Pope Francis' Appeal For LGBTQ Protectns : NPR

Contents:

• ‘IT IS NOT A CLOSET. IT IS A CAGE.’ GAY CATHOLIC PRITS SPEAK OUT
• OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC PRIT DISCS POPE FRANCIS' APPEAL FOR LGBTQ PROTECTNS
• WHAT ABOUT ‘GAY’ PRITS?
• CATHOLIC PRITS: IT'S 'EMPIRIL FACT' THAT MANY CLERGY ARE GAY
• WHY DID SO MANY GAY MEN ENTER THE PRITHOOD THE 20TH CENTURY?
• CAN A GAY MAN BEE A PRIT?
• GAY PRITS: BREAKG THE SILENCE
• 80 PERCENT OF PRITS THE VATIN ARE GAY: NEW BOOK

‘IT IS NOT A CLOSET. IT IS A CAGE.’ GAY CATHOLIC PRITS SPEAK OUT

Then we n exame some relatively recent statements om the Vatin ncerng the specific qutn of ordag men of homosexual orientatn to the prithood. For some time, the issue of homosexualy, or at least of homosexual tennci, was one on which bishops did not always agree. Some felt that so long as a man do not actually engage homosexual activy, the mere fact that he feels clatns that directn should not, and of self, bar him om beg a prit.

In orr to end any nfn, the Vatin’s Congregatn for Catholic Edutn — which has thory matters of semary trag — issued a document signed to clarify the Church’s posn on the issue of homosexual men studyg for the prithood. The Instctn Concerng the Creria for the Discernment of Votns wh regard to Persons wh Homosexual Tennci view of their Admissn to the Semary and to Holy Orrs was approved by Pope Benedict for publitn 2005. Neverthels, stat unequivolly that the Church “nnot adm to the semary or to holy orrs those who practice homosexualy, prent ep-seated homosexual tennci or support the so-lled ‘gay culture.

OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC PRIT DISCS POPE FRANCIS' APPEAL FOR LGBTQ PROTECTNS

A man who is judged by his bishop to be of homosexual clatns that are signifint enough to prevent him om beg a prit has no grounds to ntt the bishop’s cisn, and his rights are not beg vlated this se. It do, however, fd necsary the days to assert that the homosexual outlook is fundamentally patible wh the misterial prithood. While the Church asserts that homosexualy is disorred and nnot perm homosexuals to be ordaed, do ntue to pray for their spirual wellbeg — and as Catholics we ourselv should do the same.

” And yet, thoands of the church’s prits are stori of gay prits are unspoken, veiled om the outsi world, known only to one another, if they are known at than about 10 prits the Uned Stat have dared to e out publicly. But gay men probably make up at least 30 to 40 percent of the Amerin Catholic clergy, acrdg to dozens of timat om gay prits themselv and rearchers. ”Two dozen gay prits and semarians om 13 stat shared timate tails of their liv the Catholic closet wh The New York Tim over the past two months.

He uld lose all three if his bishop fds his sexualy disqualifyg, even if he is fahful to his vows of environment for gay prits has grown only more dangero.

WHAT ABOUT ‘GAY’ PRITS?

McCarrick, the once-powerful rdal who was ocked last week for sexual abe of boys and young men, has flamed accatns that homosexualy is to blame for the church’s rurgent abe crisis. And yet proment bishops have sgled out gay prits as the root of the problem, and right-wg media anizatns attack what they have lled the church’s “homosexual subculture, ” “lavenr mafia, ” or “gay bal. He has lled homosexualy “fashnable, ” remend that men wh “this ep-seated tenncy” not be accepted for mistry and admonished gay prits to be “perfectly rponsible, tryg to never create sndal.

CATHOLIC PRITS: IT'S 'EMPIRIL FACT' THAT MANY CLERGY ARE GAY

“The vast majory of gay prits are not safe, ” said Father Bob Bsen, a prit Park Cy, Utah, who was outed about 12 years ago after he held Mass for the L. ”“You uldn’t have a particular iendship wh a man, bee you might end up beg homosexual, ” explaed a prit, who once nicknamed his iends “the P.

WHY DID SO MANY GAY MEN ENTER THE PRITHOOD THE 20TH CENTURY?

”The sexual revolutn happeng outsi semary walls might as well have happened on the moon, and natnal ton the fight for gay rights, like the Stonewall rts, on prit a ral dce said the l remd him of how his elementary school forced left-hand stunts to wre wh their right hand. Many gay prits spoke of beg pulled between nial and nfn, fally g out to themselv their 30s or Green was 24 when he realized he was gay and nsired jumpg om his dorm wdow.

“There will be a time your life when you will look back on this and you’re gog to jt love yourself for beg gay, ” Father Green remembered this man tellg him.

CAN A GAY MAN BEE A PRIT?

”One prit, whose parish has no ia he is gay, remembered a backyard cktail party a few years ago where fellow prits were sayg “vile” thgs about a gay bishop. The grapeve has tght them which prits their dce are gay, whom to tst and whom to “This is not the whole story of who I am.

”Though open, the closet means that many prits have held the most paful stori among themselv for s: The semarian who died by suici, and the match om a gay bar found afterward his room. ”The ia that gay prits are rponsible for child sexual abe remas a persistent belief, pecially many nservative Catholic circl.

Wh every new abe revelatn, the tangled threads of the church’s sexual culture bee even more impossible to sort after study shows that homosexualy is not a predictor of child moltatn.

GAY PRITS: BREAKG THE SILENCE

“He said, ‘I don’t ever want you to ll me to report about your pastor, unls he is a homo or an alchie, ’” he said, referrg to an alholic. At the largt the Uned Stat, Munle Semary Illois, few ever talk about sexual inty, said one gay stunt, who is aaid to ever e out. ”Blamg gay men for sexual abe is almost sure to be a major topic this week at the Vatin, at a much-anticipated four-day summ on sexual abe.

80 PERCENT OF PRITS THE VATIN ARE GAY: NEW BOOK

When the abe crisis broke out aga last summer, the former Vatin ambassador to the Uned Stat, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, acced “homosexual works” of Amerin rdals of secretly workg to protect abers.