[Polycarp IV]

From the article, very sound advice:

Many people have wondered what can be done to solve the problem. Here is one possible scheme:


1. If a priest is "gay"--that is, living a homosexual lifestyle--he should be removed from ministry immediately and quietly. He should have no position of authority or responsibility in the Church and should seek secular employment instead. (Will some dioceses be understaffed? Yes, but too bad. Just squeeze more people into fewer pews until new priests are trained.)


2. If a priest is homosexual but not "gay"--that is, if he is living chastely--let him continue in ministry until normal retirement.


3. Exclude from seminary formation and ordination any homosexual, whether "gay" or chaste. The former brings with him too much baggage, and the latter should not sign up for "guy-only" work that will have him living with other men (thus putting him into near occasions of sin). Even if the chaste homosexual thinks he has a call to the priesthood, it would be uncharitable to him to admit him to ordination. He should be encouraged to serve the Church in other ways.


This three-step process would solve the abuse scandal almost overnight, and it would heal the priesthood in America over the next two decades or so. It would cause inconvenience in those dioceses with a high proportion of "gay" priests, but that inconvenience will pass soon enough and, in any case, is more palatable than the existing situation.

[Salvation]

Keating has a good message here.

[sitetest]

Dear CathFam,

Actually, lots of folks here have roughly described this solution for some time.

I first read it by Fr. Neuhaus in "First Things".


sitetest