Cleansing Fire

Defending Truth and Tradition in the Roman Catholic Church

Bishop Clark on Homosexuals Entering Priesthood

March 8th, 2011, Promulgated by b a

One aspect to the recent City Newspaper article I skipped over was the issue of homosexuals entering the priesthood. This story has been picked up by other sites including LifeSiteNews

Clark referenced a Vatican document, presumably the 2005 document discussing homosexuals and the priesthood put out by the Congregation for Catholic Education (CCE), saying that it “left the impression that under no circumstances could a person of gay orientation be ordained a priest.” He added that “that’s not so.”

While stating that persons with homosexual tendencies “must be accepted with respect and sensitivity” and that “every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided,” the CCE document stated that “this dicastery, in accord with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, believes it necessary to state clearly that the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’”

I suppose the term in question is “deep-seated homosexual tendencies”. Clark uses the term “person of gay orientation” which usually implies that being gay is something ingrained in that person. If that’s the case, then I would think you could equate “person of gay orientation” and “deep-seated homosexual tendencies”. In which case Clark is misrepresenting what the CCE document says.

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One Response to “Bishop Clark on Homosexuals Entering Priesthood”

  1. Dr. K says:

    Here is what the Holy Father said about this topic:

    “Homosexuality is incompatible with the priestly vocation. Otherwise, celibacy itself would lose its meaning as a renunciation. It would be extremely dangerous if celibacy became a sort of pretext for bringing people into the priesthood who don’t want to get married anyway,” the pope said.

    The pope cited a 2005 Vatican document that drew a sharp line against priestly ordination of homosexuals. He said the document emphasized that homosexual candidates cannot become priests because their sexual orientation interferes with “the proper sense of paternity” that belongs to the priesthood.

    The pope said it was important to select priestly candidates very carefully, “to head off a situation where the celibacy of priests would practically end up being identified with the tendency to homosexuality.””

    As is usually the case, our bishop believes that his opinion supersedes that of the Church. In one more year his opinion will not matter at all.

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