Comments on: A Gay Priest’s Second Life http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2008/02/03/1387 News, analysis and fact-checking of anti-gay rhetoric Sun, 19 May 2013 14:07:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Ben in Oakland http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2008/02/03/1387/comment-page-1#comment-6258 Ben in Oakland Sun, 03 Feb 2008 20:24:52 +0000 http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2008/02/03/1387#comment-6258 A man does not become a priest merely because he wants to. He must have a vocation, literally a calling to God, which is a charisma, a gift from God. Without this, he CANNOT be a priest. The church goes through a lengthy process to ascertain that candidates do have a genuine vocation, because many do not. The candidate must go through a tremendous amount of religious and psychological evaluation. And only after that may he be ordained. We must conclude then that God is calling gay men to the priesthood, men considered by the church to have "an inherent tendency towards moral evil." God does not apparently share the church's view on homosexuality. As the Church itself is certifying that these people have the calling from God, to then condemn gay people as "intrinsically, morally disordered", not worthy to receive the sacrament of marriage to another of God's children, let alone be free of the Church's disapproval and animosity, is either rank hypocrisy or stupefying blindness. Probably both. A man does not become a priest merely because he wants to. He must have a vocation, literally a calling to God, which is a charisma, a gift from God. Without this, he CANNOT be a priest. The church goes through a lengthy process to ascertain that candidates do have a genuine vocation, because many do not. The candidate must go through a tremendous amount of religious and psychological evaluation. And only after that may he be ordained.

We must conclude then that God is calling gay men to the priesthood, men considered by the church to have “an inherent tendency towards moral evil.” God does not apparently share the church’s view on homosexuality. As the Church itself is certifying that these people have the calling from God, to then condemn gay people as “intrinsically, morally disordered”, not worthy to receive the sacrament of marriage to another of God’s children, let alone be free of the Church’s disapproval and animosity, is either rank hypocrisy or stupefying blindness.

Probably both.

]]> By: William http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2008/02/03/1387/comment-page-1#comment-6257 William Sun, 03 Feb 2008 19:01:06 +0000 http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2008/02/03/1387#comment-6257 Yes, but the Catholic Church is clearly better off without this man, whatever his positive qualities may be. I mean to say, you simply can't have gay priests - particularly if they have the effrontery to come out and to suggest that there's nothing wrong with being gay and that gay people should be treated as decently as normal people. Now if he'd merely been engaging in some minor naughtiness, such as molesting the altar boys or the girls in the Confirmation class, then that would have been a different matter entirely. He could just have been discreetly shifted to another parish, and shifted again if necessary, and perhaps yet again and .... Yes, but the Catholic Church is clearly better off without this man, whatever his positive qualities may be. I mean to say, you simply can’t have gay priests – particularly if they have the effrontery to come out and to suggest that there’s nothing wrong with being gay and that gay people should be treated as decently as normal people.

Now if he’d merely been engaging in some minor naughtiness, such as molesting the altar boys or the girls in the Confirmation class, then that would have been a different matter entirely. He could just have been discreetly shifted to another parish, and shifted again if necessary, and perhaps yet again and ….

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