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MINNEAPOLIS — A Lutheran pastor in Minneapolis who opposes homosexuals being allowed to lead congregations said Monday he is attracted to men, but that he's not a hypocrite because he never acted on his urges. The Rev. Tom Brock told The Associated Press he has known for years he is sexually attracted to men, but doesn't consider himself gay because he never acted on it. In June, the Minnesota gay magazine Lavender reported that Brock was a member of a support group for Christians who struggle with same-sex attraction. Brock's church, the Hope Lutheran Church, placed him on leave while...

For the second time in less than a year, the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), an official agency of the denomination, has published an article arguing that sexual relationships outside the covenant of marriage are not necessarily improper. “An Ordained Single Woman and the Discipline,” published June 7 as part of the “Sex and the Church” series in GBCS’ weekly Faith in Action online newsletter, contends that sexual relationships should not be off-limits for unmarried UM clergy. Last August, the controversial series featured an article by Unitarian “sexologist” Debra Haffner who wrote that one can have...

Pope Benedict XVI Vatican City, Jun 17, 2010 / 08:58 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Vatican analyst Sandro Magister published an article in which he detailed Pope Benedict’s teaching on priestly celibacy, a concept with which many have expressed discontent in face of the clerical sexual abuse scandals. However, the Pope’s June 10 explanation, which presents celibacy in a new light, was both hinted at and foreshadowed by two prior talks, Magister claims. During a prayer vigil with 15,000 priests from around the world, Pope Benedict answered the questions of five priests from five different continents. His response to one priest...

From a Los Angeles Times piece, "Pope Benedict rejects call to end celibacy rule" (June 11, 2010), about Pope Benedict XVI's comments earlier today in Rome to priests gathered to mark the culmination of the Year of the Priest: At an outdoor vigil in St. Peter's Square that veered between moments of deep reverence and outbursts of enthusiasm more characteristic of a soccer game, the pope told the gathering of priests, believed to be the largest in history, that celibacy "is made possible by the grace of God … who asks us to transcend ourselves." Celibacy would be a "scandal,"...

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 9, 2010 (Zenit.org).- There is a beautiful aspect of celibacy that underlines a priest's dedication to serve each and every person as a brother or sister in Christ, says Benedict XVI's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. The cardinal spoke about the priesthood and celibacy this afternoon at the "Priests Today" conference, held at Paul VI Hall in the Vatican. The Congregation for Clergy sponsored the three-hour event, in cooperation with the Focolare Movement, the Schoenstatt Movement and the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Priests "are essentially brothers among brothers, in whom they recognize the face of Christ....

Because of the priestly abuse scandals we so often hear that the problem is priestly celibacy. That not having sex causes you to abuse children and teens. That it is unhealthy and unnatural for us not to have sex.Well if they truly believed this then we need a whole new set of laws.For example what about socially awkward and extremely shy men? Obviously their unwanted state of celibacy will cause them to abuse children. How about marriages that have grown to be sexless because of one spouse being tired of sex? They too will look for children to abuse...

A “Celibacy Problem”? Catholic-Bashing, NAMBLA and the Dalai Lama    Celibacy brings consolation, independence, more freedom. The Dalai Lama (Posted May 2, 2010 www.RemnantNewspaper.com) On April 4, 2010 the blog page of the London Review of Books posted an article titled “The Celibacy Problem,” concerning the current priest scandal in the Catholic Church. The author, R.W. Johnson, states: Nobody I knew at either my convent school or at the Christian Brothers was ever the victim of sexual abuse. But I could weep as I think back not just to the savage physical punishments common to both schools and the...

Friday, April 09, 2010 The Validity of Homosexual Vows of Chastity in Religious Life By Regis Scanlon We are all too painfully aware of the problems that homosexuality in the priesthood has caused the Catholic Church. When the John Jay College of Criminal Justice conducted its research into clerical sex abuse for the U.S. bishops in 2004, it found not a pedophilia crisis but what Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, described as a pattern of "homosexual predation on American Catholic youth." The first question that comes to mind is: Should the Church accept homosexuals into diocesan...

Don't blame celibacy. To fight the plague of sexual abuse, the church needs to become more Catholic, not less.Throughout what U.S. Catholics called the "Long Lent" of 2002, when every week seemed to bring revelations of clerical sexual abuse and its mishandling by the church's bishops, some observers suggested that this crisis was the byproduct of some distinctive features of Catholic life: a celibate priesthood, a church governed by male bishops, a demanding sexual ethic. "Modernize" the church by changing all that, they argued, and these horrible problems would abate, even disappear.Sexual abuse is indeed horrible, but there is no...

ABC News is just now discovering last week's confusion over Christoph Cardinal Schonborn's comments on priestly celibacy. If you missed it, the cardinal had written a column for his diocesan magazine addressing the past sex abuse scandal. In the article, Cardinal Schönborn called for an "unflinching examination" of possible reasons for pedophilia, and said that this includes the issues of training priests "as well as the question of what happened in the so-called sexual revolution.”"It also includes the issue of priest celibacy and the issue of personality development. It requires a great deal of honesty, both on the part of...

Rome is using this day of rest to stir a debate that never seems to rest: The Vatican on Sunday denied that its celibacy requirement for priests was the root cause of the clerical sex abuse scandal convulsing the church in Europe and again defended the pope's handling of the crisis. Suggestions that the celibacy rule was in part responsible for the ''deviant behavior'' of sexually abusive priests have swirled in recent days, with opinion pieces in German newspapers blaming it for fueling abuse and even Italian commentators questioning the rule. Much of the furor was spurred by comments from...

A cardinal seen as a future candidate for the papacy has broken a Vatican taboo by raising the possibility that priestly celibacy is among the causes of the sex abuse scandal sweeping the Roman Catholic Church.

ROME, MARCH 8, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Priestly celibacy is not psychologically dangerous, and in fact, sexual behavior based on "anything goes" is what is truly destructive to the personality. This is the affirmation made by Dr. Aquilino Polaino Lorente, a physician and psychiatrist who teaches courses on psychopathology at the University of St. Paul in Madrid. The psychiatrist -- best known for his work in children's and family psychology -- was a speaker at the two-day conference held last week at Rome's Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. The conference, "Priestly Celibacy: Theology and Life," was sponsored by the Congregation for...

ROME, MARCH 9, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Married priests are an exception and the Church is increasingly convinced that they must remain so, according to a spiritual theology professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. Father Laurent Touze explained the foundations of priestly celibacy when he spoke at a two-day conference held last week at Rome's Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.  The conference, "Priestly Celibacy: Theology and Life," was sponsored by the Congregation for the Clergy as an event for the Year for Priests. ZENIT spoke with Father Touze about the exceptions to priestly celibacy and the future of...

Married or single priests from the early stages of Christianity practiced celibacy, according to a Vatican archaeologist. During the first four centuries, married priests would renounce having intimate relationships with their wives, but they needed their the approval of their spouse. Brief video: http://www.romereports.com/palio/modules.php?t=Married-priests-from-the-first-centuries-practiced-celibacy&name=News&file=article&newlang=english&sid=1740

.Deacon John Burns, a seminarian from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, center, attends a theological conference on priestly celibacy at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome March 4. Burns and several other seminarians from the Pontifical North American College attended the two-day conference. (CNS photo/Paul Haring VATICAN CITY -- Exceptions to celibacy for priests in the Roman Catholic Church can be puzzling, including for young priests enthusiastic about their vocation.The Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, run by Opus Dei in Rome, held a theological conference on priestly celibacy March 4-5 and while no one challenged mandatory...

1. Allowing priests to marry would end pedophilia. It is completely untrue that celibate priests are more likely to be pedophiles than any other group of men, married or not. Pedophilia affects only 0.3 percent of the population of Catholic clergy, and sexual abusers in general account for less than 2 percent of Catholic priests. These figures are comparable to rates among married men, as non-Catholic scholar Philip Jenkins points out in his book Pedophiles and Priests. Other Protestant denominations have admitted to having similar problems among their own married clergy, so clearly the problem is not with celibacy. 2....

1. Celibacy reaffirms marriage. In a society that is completely saturated with sex, celibate priests are living proof that sexual urges can be controlled and channeled in a positive way. Far from denigrating the sexual act, celibacy acknowledges the goodness of sex within marriage by offering it up as a sacrifice to God. The sanctity of marriage is dishonored if it is treated merely as an outlet for sexual impulses. Rather, we as Christians are called to understand marriage as the inviolable commitment of a husband and wife to love and honor one another. A priest offers up a similar...

The current battles over clerical celibacy are nothing new. When mandatory celibacy was first universally imposed on the clergy a millennium ago, clergy and laity alike broke into riotous rebellion for more than two generations, and a good number of bishops and priests flouted these laws for several generations more. When the Protestant Reformation broke out half a millennium ago, clerical celibacy and marriage were among the most bitter grievances over which the Western Church ultimately splintered. Today, the exposures of child abuse by some enterprising Catholic priests has rejoined these ancient battles within Catholicism and between Catholics and Protestants...

“…a thorn in the flesh was given to me…” (2 Corinthians 12: 7). No one really knows what caused St. Paul to struggle, but there was something that really bothered him. He pleaded with the Lord that his difficulties be taken away, but Paul received an answer he was not looking for: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12: 9). True, Baptism washes away original sin, but we are left with the effects of original sin. We do not have complete control over ourselves. The spiritual life is a continual battle....