Ban on Same-Sex Attraction & Sexual Activity Could Be Crucial Issue for Catholics' Attitudes

NY Times ^ | September 24, 2005 | By PETER STEINFELS

[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.

[little jeremiah]

Homosexual Agenda Ping.

If you want to read the NYT's highly slanted take on the excellent news from Pope Benedict. If Grampa Dave reads this, he can tell us about the reporters employed by the NYT. A huge percentage of them are homosexuals, and I doubt if very many are practicing and believing Catholics.

Freepmail me AND DirtyHarryY2K if you want on/off this pinglist.

[NYer]

saying my ideas are right and God is wrong is the highest sin...

Bears repeating! Thank you for the excellent exegesis.

[Delphinium]

"is an expression of neotony."

explaine to another redneck? Sounds comical.

[The Grammarian]

Does anyone know if the Evangelical Churches ban gay men from their seminaries?

Given evangelicals' views on practicing homosexuals, and the lack of a celibacy requirement for closeted homosexuals to hide behind, whether evangelical seminaries outright ban them or not, there aren't a whole lot that find their way into said seminaries.

So-called "moderate" seminaries, however, are another story. And since, in some mainstream Protestant churches (e.g., my own United Methodist Church), there are liberal as well as evangelical wings, it's not unheard of for places like Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary (NOT an evangelical institution) to host pagan mock-communions, let alone give a pass to practicing homosexuals.

[A CA Guy]

Nothing new regarding what it says in the Bible, so the fact that Catholics are getting more strict in making sure no gays become stalkers of children is a good thing.

[A CA Guy]

As Ginsberg and others seek to go with laws of other countries to apply law in their rulings, I'm just so sure they are going to put what the Vatican just did right up there...

[right-wingin_It]

Advancing the gay agenda: "Same sex attraction" is the politically correct term for homosexual and gay, apparently. Next come the lawsuits suing anyone calling a homosexual a homosexual. I'll bet the ranch on it.

I think your right!...Where on earth do they have their meetings where they co-ordinate this crap?...or does the NYTimes just do it for them!

[Alas Babylon!]

Very true! As it is said:

ISAIAH 55:

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
9 As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your ways
and my thoughts above your thoughts.

[mirabile_dictu]

"How do they propose to measure and regulate 'same-sex attraction' exactly?"

Penile plesmythography

[punster]

A question: What about priests that molest little girls. It is odd, the Pope has not said anything about that.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

"is an expression of neotony."

explaine to another redneck? Sounds comical.

---

Neotony is the retention of juvenile characteristics into chronological maturity. In canine species, neotony defines why some adult dogs retain the short muzzles of the puppy stage, vs the jaws of a mature wolf.
Neotony is the Peter Pan thing! {Michael Jackson thing?}
Ain't nothing comical about being saddled with the burden of a whole Hell of a bunch of perpetual, immature little pissants, still "playing doctor" with the neighborhood kids.
You are depending too much on another dumbass Redneck Boy, do the research, Google is your friend!

[little jeremiah]

Well, obviously the Pope thinks that's fine. /sarc off.

Since from what I've read at least 80% or more of the molestation has been same sex, IOW homosexual, that might be the reason why.

[Angelas]

"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."

Amen to that!

[punster]

---

Well, obviously the Pope thinks that's fine. /sarc off.

Since from what I've read at least 80% or more of the molestation has been same sex, IOW homosexual, that might be the reason why.

---

There is an obvious way to make sure that priests do not molest little boys or litle girls: If they want to be a priest, require them to be neutered.

[Mrs. Don-o]

You asked, "Can the Church afford to lose 30-50% of new priests?"

I think a case could be made for the contrary assumption: it is the prevalence of a "gay culture" in the seminaries which has driven away literally thousands of normal young men who otherwise would have pursued a vocation to the priesthood.

When the seminaries become unambiguously hospitable to normal, masculine, normally-oriented men, they will attract and retain many more suitable candidates for the priesthood.

This can only lead to more and better priests. God bless the Pope.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I don't think "Same sex attraction" is the politically correct term. Quite the contrary.This is the term chastity-advocates often use for people who may feel some degree of attraction, but do not necessarily either (1) act out, themselves, or (2) justify such behavior in others, or (3) support the gay social-political agenda.

In other words, SSA just indicates an objective inclination, which the person may or may not be trying to resist.

[arthurus]

Why are we even concerned with what NYT thinks anymore? especially about religion?

[tuesday afternoon]

I don't think "Same sex attraction" is the politically correct term. Quite the contrary.This is the term chastity-advocates often use for people who may feel some degree of attraction, but do not necessarily either (1) act out, themselves, or (2) justify such behavior in others, or (3) support the gay social-political agenda.

I sincerely doubt that is what the NYT had in mind when they made that headline.

[tuesday afternoon]

"Do you want to work for an organization that barely tolerates your existence and says that people like you can no longer be accepted?" asked one New York priest who described himself as homosexual and chaste. "What kind of self-hatred is necessary to continue in a place like that?"

I think BIRDS said it best:

I wrote this earlier and I'll write it again here because what I find most telling is that homosexuals currently in the Priesthood opt to threaten to leave the Church and abandon their vows in light of this instruction from Pope Benedict but they don't consider abanding the sin itself of homosexuality, in effect, refuse to recognize God's very statement about it, and/or if recognizing, are rejecting God's terms.

[TChad]

Its probably the same source that says 10% of the general population are homosexual (when it is 3% at most)

That would be the long-discredited Kinsey. Well, discredited to everyone but the MSM.