Catholic Ping
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Posted on 09/24/2005 1:33:27 PM PDT by NYer
News reports surrounding the review of Roman Catholic seminaries in the United States that the Vatican has organized have focused on the possibility that Rome plans to bar gay men from ordination to the priesthood, regardless of their readiness to remain faithful to their pledge of celibacy.
Such a ban would have serious consequences, of course. It would reverberate far beyond the gay candidates for ordination whom it might directly affect and even beyond the celibate gay priests who would inevitably take it as a judgment on their own calling and years of service.
In fact, the Catholic Church's moral stance on same-sex attraction and sexual activity may well prove to be a touchstone issue for the next generation of Catholics' attitudes toward church authority, just as the renewed papal condemnation of contraception proved to be for Catholics in the 1970's and 80's.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And how many faithful Catholics are on the NY Times editorial board?
Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
How do they propose to measure and regulate 'same-sex attraction' exactly?
It's about time...at least the panzer pontiff will bring the seminaries back to where they need to be regarding this whole, wretched matter. And the NYT usual banter that it might cause further rifts as did the contraception issue did in the past; big difference there obviously.
The Church needs to not only prevent the ordination of homosexuals but also defrock those that are known. Sorry, it's better to err on the side of safety then take a chance.
How many "dry" (i.e., non-practicing) homosexuals do you know? I know none, however, I suspect there's not many to begin with, given it is central to their lifestyle to do the deed so to speak.
Probably between zero and none;)
By gazing into each person's soul...
Can the Church afford to lose 30-50% of new priests?
I'm thinking it would be the same way that they regulate "human-animal-sex attraction."
To start, don't put up the poster of Lassie, or Mr. Ed's, crotch next to the Coors Girls in your room. If you are a guy, don't brag publicly about how much you want to drive the dirt road with Tom Cuise. Pretty simple rules.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
I was assuming that it would already be uncommon for any priests who had unacted upon homosexual urges to have gay pin ups on their walls, but who knows!
We don't know yet. The document has not come out. The scuttlebutt (and that is all it is now) is that anyone who has engaged in homosexual activity, or has strong homosexual inclinations, would be best not to apply to a seminary and not to be accepted into a seminary. Even homosexuals who have been celibate for 10 or more years should not be admitted to seminaries if they have lived a homosexual lifestyle. But we don't know
Is there a reliable source for those numbers? I keep hearing the same numbers, but they are never sourced.
Of course the N.Y. Times words it to make the church look bad. The church is simply following the Bible in regard to homosexuality. A headline without bias would simply be Church, Based On God's Word, To Ban Homosexual Priests.
I'm not Catholic, but it seems that homosexuals are less likely to maintain celibacy, than heterosexuals. If you get into thinking about all of this, you may form all sorts of politically incorrect conclusions, and we sure don't want to risk that, do we?
One of these days, when I can afford some really decent Sour Mash, I will write an essay on my theory, that homosexuality is an expression of neotony. If I mispelled that, oh well, what can you expect from a talking Redneck?
It will all come back to what my Daddy told me, "son, if you can't control yourself, someone else Damned sure will".
Good for the Pope!!!
That number is based upon the estimate that 40% of the current crop of priests are homosexual. There is no factual evidence for this, just 'gut feelings'.
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