I left the following on another website to the question above.
May God give you peace!
Psychology has made it abundantly clear that homosexual orientation is not changeable.
The Church has made it abundantly clear that it does not want homosexual priests and religious, despite the contributions of homosexual priests and religious now and in the past.
We can slice and dice the psychological research and church documents till doomsday, but it seems clear to me that they say what they say and mean what they say.
So what is a gay Catholic to do? Pray. Examine one's conscience. Be true to yourself and live a life worthy of the call you have received, and be ruthlessly honest with yourself and with others. Then do what you conscience tells you to do.
Send me a private message if you want to talk more about this. God bless.
2 comments:
Dear Father: You write that the Church has made it abundantly clear that it does not want homosexual priests and religious. I don't think that most people in the Church feel that way. From what I have read most Catholics are tolerant and accepting of gay people. They are actually more tolerant on the average than people of other faiths. It seems that Pope Benedict is against gay people but one has to take into account his background. He was raised in a society where gay people were seen as "untermenschen" or sub-human. They were considered little better than the Jews. I think if Pope Benedict had been raised in a democratic society in which gay people were seen as equal in dignity to other people then I think he would have diffent opinions. From what I have read Pope Paul VI was probably a homosexual and Pope John Paul I might have been gay also. Gay people are a big part of the Church. And what about women in the religious life? I am sure that many of them are gay also. Perhaps there are some in Rome (a minority I think) that want all gay Americans out of the Church but I don't think most people here feel like that. But what can gay American Catholics do? We don't really have any influence on those in Rome that dislike gay people. They don't care about us.
You are right to point out that the people in the pews - who are the Church too - really do not care whether their priests and religious order members are gay or straight. You are also right to point out that there have been gay popes, bishops, priests, brothers and sisters. There is no question about that. You are also right to point out that Pope Benedict, and all others including ourselves, are products of our times.
However, the institution has issued official documents barring men with persistent homosexual tendencies from seminaries, and has officially taught that gay people should not be in religious life.
I think that the institution must 'own' its dysfunctional prejudices. I think that the institution must be held to accountability for them. And I think that the present day climate is so oppressive, so unwilling to engage in even the most timid dialog, that it is wrong for me to encourage gay man or woman in a priestly or religious order vocation. I am terribly sad as I write this. I look at my own experience and see the men in my order who are devoted and talented pastors, chaplains, administrators, and missionaries. My order would not have survived this long in North America without its gay members. But the psychic and spiritual cost of being a gay religious or priest is now so great that I can't recommend it to anyone.
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