Can Gay Men be Prits? on JSTOR

Contents:

• OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC PRIT DISCS POPE FRANCIS' APPEAL FOR LGBTQ PROTECTNS
• ‘IT IS NOT A CLOSET. IT IS A CAGE.’ GAY CATHOLIC PRITS SPEAK OUT
• WHY DID SO MANY GAY MEN ENTER THE PRITHOOD THE 20TH CENTURY?
• WHAT ABOUT ‘GAY’ PRITS?
• IS BIBLILLY ALLOWABLE FOR A PASTOR TO BE GAY?
• CATHOLIC DCE SAYS GAY AND TRANS PEOPLE N'T BE BAPTIZED OR RECEIVE COMMUNN
• CAN A GAY MAN BEE A PRIT?
• THE GAY CHURCH
• VATIN REAFFIRMS BAN ON GAY PRITS.
• GAY PRITS: BREAKG THE SILENCE

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

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.

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. 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 so this ll for the civil regnn and protectn of gay civil unns, 's really an affirmatn of the humany of gay and lbian persons - that he's sayg that bee gay and lbian persons are human begs, that society, that the state, that ernments have an obligatn and a duty to protect their basic human Do extendg the right to a civil unn and acknowledgg that LGBTQ people should be allowed to have a partner their life through a civil unn and a fay - do that mean children?

Now, may seem to be a semantic difference, but I thk what the pope is sayg is that he is not opposed to the legal regnn of fay life and the right for gay and lbian persons to raise and have As a gay Catholic yourself, I mean, as a man of fah, as a Catholic, is somehow ls signifint, I would image, a civil unn than beg able to be married the church? I personally - and I know many others, gay and lbian persons and those who are alli and who love - would want the church to be able to one day regnize the lovg mments of LGBTQ persons the sacrament of marriage. And what the pope is dog wh this kd of claratn - he's clearly puttg the Catholic Church on the si of agast the crimalizatn of behavr and favor of protectg the human digny of gay and lbian But help me unrstand this bee 's my unrstandg that the Catholic Church still nsirs homosexualy to be a s, not somethg that should be enuraged a liftyle.

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

And I thk that this really giv a different lens for that kd of nversatn that go on the Catholic Church that we're basilly sayg that, no, gay and lbian persons n, you know, have a right to a fay. ” 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. 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.

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

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.

”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. ”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.

WHAT ABOUT ‘GAY’ PRITS?

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. 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.

“Instead of seeg creased acuntabily on the parts of the bishops, uld bee once aga a nmnatn of lbian, gay, transsexual people wh the church, ” John Coe, 63, a permanent an Kentucky, who me out last year, said about the summ. In fact, the fact that we have only one sat repeatedly quoted on this topic om 19 centuri before our own prov to me that we have never had an epimic of so many homosexuals the prithood as today.

This blog post is not about the full history of homosexuals the prithood, but rather the cultural factors and attacks on the Church the 20th century that created the perfect storm for many homosexuals to enter Catholic semari. If you doubt that this terpretatn is a simply a stretch to clu homosexualy my blog post, look at which word the Apostle Pl to show how practicg homosexuals will not make to Heaven: "Or do you not know that the unrighteo will not her the kgdom of God?

IS BIBLILLY ALLOWABLE FOR A PASTOR TO BE GAY?

Do not be ceived: neher the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexualy (μαλακοὶ), nor thiev, nor the greedy, nor dnkards, nor revilers, nor swdlers will her the kgdom of God" (1 Cor 6:9–10).

Also remember that, although this blog post is not about the rapg of children, remember that nota bene number six at the begng of this blog post shows that 80 percent of the prits who harm children were intified as gay. The that followed Vatin II was not the genis of gay prits, but allowed them to live the open, and here's my gus as to why: All through semary, I was told that there was no change to lurgy or doctre.

A man who do not believe any objective orr for his sexualy (homo-sex at bt, child abe at worst) is gog to be attracted to a Mass where he, the narcissist, is the only pot of reference for entertag the people. When early Christian mentators such as John Chrysostom, one of the most prolific biblil wrers of the fourth century, cricized homosexual acts, was typilly part of an ascetic nmnatn of all sexual experienc.

CATHOLIC DCE SAYS GAY AND TRANS PEOPLE N'T BE BAPTIZED OR RECEIVE COMMUNN

Regardg ndidat for the prithood, December 2016 the Congregatn for the Clergy, wh Pope Francis’s approval, reaffirmed that men who live a homosexual liftyle, have “ep-seated homosexual tennci, ” or support the “so-lled ‘gay culture’” nnot be admted to the misterial prithood:. In relatn to persons wh homosexual tennci who seek admissn to semary, or disver such a suatn the urse of formatn, nsistent wh her own Magisterium, “the Church, while profoundly rpectg the persons  qutn, nnot adm to the semary or to holy orrs those who practise homosexualy, prent ep-seated homosexual tennci or support the so-lled ‘gay culture.

This document reaffirms that, ntrary to some reports, the Church don’t view the term gay favorably, given s associatn wh livg and promotg a liftyle that is irrencilable wh J Christ and his teachg (see John 8:31-32) you like this ntent? So may be biblilly allowable for a pastor to nsir himself gay—that is, he stggl wh homosexual attractn—if he is mted to sexual pury, never acts on those sir, and never enurag anyone else to do so (see Romans 1:32).

CAN A GAY MAN BEE A PRIT?

For gay, lbian, bisexual and queer people, that would mean endg same-sex relatnships, and for trans people, would mean livg as the sex they were assigned at birth, although the guidance says trans people who have unrgone "physil chang to the body" aren’t required to reverse, acrdance wh Catholic doctre, the guidance says children of same-sex married upl n be baptized if they are raised the Catholic fah and tght that same-sex marriage go agast the church's teachgs.

’”Marianne Duddy-Burke, the executive director of DignyUSA, which advot for LGBTQ rights the Catholic Church, said the guidance is part of a larger trend of dc’ "makg statements that look like they're tryg to be helpful to gay, queer and transgenr people but that are really dog harm to the spirual, emotnal and physil health of our muny and to fai.

The crern of ‘ep-seated homosexual tennci’ has been terpreted by many bishops and directors of semary formatn, as referrg to men who are unlikely to be able to live a chaste celibate life. There are many prits and relig wh a homosexual orientatn who are emotnally mature, psychologilly healthy, genuely lovg, livg ntented celibate liv, and loved by those to whom they mister.

THE GAY CHURCH

In regnizg their historil ntributns, many bishops and directors of semary formatn have terpreted the Vatin Instctn of 2005 to mean that if a gay man feels an thentic ll to the prithood, is emotnally mature and n live a celibate liftyle, he n be admted to the semary.

A church that, sce 2005, bans prits wh “ep-seated homosexual tennci” and officially teach that gay men are “objectively disorred” and herently disposed toward “trsic moral evil” is actually posed, ways very few other stutns are, of gay men. This cultural and moral shift has not only changed the nscns of most Amerin Catholics (67 percent of whom support civil marriage for gay upl) and gay prits (many of whom are close to qutg) but also broken the silence that long shroud the subject.

VATIN REAFFIRMS BAN ON GAY PRITS.

Alarmed by the possibily that divorced and remarried people might be weled as well as gays, tradnalists lnched a fierce rearguard mpaign agast the new papacy, wh a foc on what some lled a “Lavenr Mafia” nng the church, and broke new ground nnectg this directly to the horrifyg revelatns of sex abe that me to light 2002.

In creasgly direct ways, they have argued that the root of the sndal was not abe of power, or pedophilia, or clerilism, or the distortive psychologil effects of celibacy and stutnal homophobia, but gayns self. ” Michael Hichborn, head of the ge-right Lepanto Instute, lled for a “plete and thorough removal of all homosexual clergymen om the church … It is gog to be difficult and will likely rult a very ser prit shortage, but ’s fely worth the effort.

Here, seemed, was a pedophile and an abive gay man, at the very apex of the church, known to be sexually active wh semarians, protected by his peers, and tolerated for s by many the hierarchy, cludg the last three pop. New onle media anizatns — led by Brebart-style webs such as LifeSe News and Church Milant — now routely pounce on any cints volvg gay prits and have an fluential dience the Vatin.

GAY PRITS: BREAKG THE SILENCE

At one pot as we spoke the next day the hospal, he was greeted by a woman who asked for an on-the-spot nfsn and he shooed me asi; later I met an anguished gay man om an ultra-Catholic fay he was unselg; and for a few hours on Sunday morng, he was wh the wife and teenage sons of a dyg man. The news environment is saturated wh stori about sex abe — and rightly so — yet there are hardly any public exampl of the overwhelmg number of gay prits who would never dream of preyg upon the powerls.

For example, as the late historian John Boswell monstrated his groundbreakg, ntroversial book Christiany, Social Tolerance, and Homosexualy, a fourth-century Christian wrer, John Chrysostom, attacked the lears of the church for beg too acceptg of same-sex love and even sex: “Those very people who have been nourished by godly doctre, who stct others what they ought and ought not to do … the do not nsort wh prostut as fearlsly as they do wh young men … None is ashamed, no one blh … the chaste seem to be the odd on, and the disapprovg the on error. ” There was nsirable Christian ncern about sex general — followg the teachg of sats Pl and Augte — but no nsens that homosexualy, if kept to tense mutual love and celibate iendship, was specifilly problematic. The historil rerd, however, reveals that for all Augte’s fluence, the practice of tense homoerotic iendship among the clergy was mon over the followg centuri, pecially monasteri.