Dear friend ... I perfectly understand your frustration. Let's for just one minute consider the two items you are suggesting.
1. "defrock all practicing homosexuals" - if you watched the closing mass at WYD, you would have counted 7,000 priests! If 7,000 priests were present at WYD, how many ordained catholic priests are there in the world? How does one determine if a priest has homosexual tendencies and has acted on them? How would this process work? How long would it take to compile that number? Who would make those decisions?
2. "no way the media would ignore it" - you're absolutely right. In a society that has legalized gay marriage, the media would be all over it. They would quickly single out those gay priests who practice celibacy but were defrocked and hold them up for all the world to judge the Catholic Church. These men would son be turned into "victims".
John 15:18 - “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first."
How to choose who to defrock. I dunno- lets START with all the priests who have been moved and hidden for abusing children. If they are guilty enough to pay off their victims and hide in other parishes-they should be defrocked. What if 5000 of the 7000 priests are KNOWN to be homosexual? ( And I have no doubt that almost all are known within the clergy). Well- those 5000 are illegitimate and should be defrocked. They are NOT priests if they break their vows then presume to preach against sin to the laity. None of the sacraments they perform are legitimate either.
How to tell is easy- local bishops know who the gay priests are in their parishes, Archbishops know who the gay Bishops are, and Cardinals know who the gay Archbishops are. They have been embedded in the Church forever, and they all know to protect each other-if they out an underling they, too, will be outed. It’s a ‘good old girls’ club and its old and entrenched. Why else would any Godly Pope allow it to continue? It’s like mutilating the patient to save them from cancer-no Pope wants to be the one to shine the light on the roaches and start exterminating.
I meant what I said-and I am the product of 12 years of Catholic school- I would rather have a world with ONE legitimate priest per continent than thousands who are abominations and illegitimate. These perverts are why the Catholic church is suffering in world opinion, and in the loss of practicing Catholics. Religion and hypocrisy are a toxic mix.
And as for the media turning the defrocked priests into ‘victims’- I don’t give a damn. Better they be ‘victims’ and OUT of my Church, than that they continue to victimize children and practice sodomy while representing Christ. So if there will be victims anyway- let it be the perverts-not children or the Catholic Church.
Yes, NYer.
Clean house and stop excusing why it isn’t being done.
So what if it takes a while.
It’s far better than what is happening NOW, which is nothing.
At least starting is a step in the right direction, amount of time it takes notwithstanding.