[xzins]

The bishop is right, of course, in arguing that homosexual acts are sins. Jesus’ words about “lust in the heart” seem to indicate, however, that the bishop needs to rethink whether “same sex attraction” is also a sin.

Homosexuality is destructive, it kills, and it perverts the mind. These are reasons we can understand for God calling it a sin. There are probably other issues that we don’t see, but that God does see. Therefore, those things God calls sin are sin whether I understand it or not.

The bishop (and the Catholic Church) are only injuring themselves by trying to draw a distinction between priest who abuse children and those who abuse adolescents.

It sounds as if they are attempting to excuse sinful behavior. The bishop is entirely off base by bringing it up, and it plays very badly in the media and among those who support the church in its efforts to clean up its system.

[wagglebee]

I think you need to go back and re-read this. It seems to be an editorial by a Catholic laywoman and what you are taking issue with is her opinion and she is the one who tries to minimize the damage done by pedophile priests. (Of course, I've been known to be wrong.)

The bishop seems very forceful in his views that homosexuality is a sin both in thought and deed:

"As a priest and bishop, I have the responsibility before God and in the name of Jesus Christ to call all men and women to conversion, the first step of which is recognizing sinful activity for what it is. Sometimes that is not a comfortable thing to do, but it is always the compassionate thing to do."

[Gumdrop]

“The bishop (and the Catholic Church) are only injuring themselves by trying to draw a distinction between priest who abuse children and those who abuse adolescents.”

I’ve heard this argument before. But, it infers to me a lack of understanding of what is being discussed in the differentiation between sexual abuse of children vs postpubescent adolecents. The point of this clarification is not to lessen the seriousness of either of these actions, but to clarify that most of the abuses were homosexual in nature rather than true pedophilia. In fact, I have read many times that often homosexuals will cultivate relationships with teenagers as a way of recruiting more into their circle.

The biggest irony in this entire subject is that liberals insist that the Catholic clergy abuses are pedophilia; and at the same time insist that the boy scouts must include homosexuals as leaders. It is obvious why the MSM does not want to clarify the true nature of the majority of the priestly abue cases. It would make their actions against the boy scouts seem ridiculous!