Vatican document to be good for Church

A few facts need to be placed on record:

1 -- Results of The John Jay College of Criminal Justice Study, released in early 2004, documenting the abuses of a 52-year period from 1950 to 2002, show that 4,392 priests and deacons were accused of abuse. This is 4% of the clergy during that time.

2 -- Some 10,667 individuals alleged abuse. Of these 81 percent were male.

3 -- Of the victims, 78.2% were above the age of 11.

(The results of the John Jay Study can be found at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops website.)

We want to be careful with this discussion. It should be clear to all faithful Catholics that there should be no tolerance for the abuse of children at any age. That is a given. Thus logic insists that steps to make our young people more secure should be taken. What are those steps, or changes? Examine the data.

Four out of five victims were male. Most victims were not pre-pubescent children. This means most of the violators were not pedophiles, as the secular media wants us to believe. The violators were homosexual men.

This is the dirty little secret that the secular media and the liberal groups across America do not want you to know.

For reasons you can probably guess, they want you to think that the problem with the Catholic priesthood is the requirement of celibacy (not the violation of celibacy). Celibacy can be defined as “the renunciation of marriage implicitly or explicitly made, for the more perfect observance of chastity …” A chaste celibate must abstain from all sexual actions and avoid influences that would stir lustful thoughts. Whether one is intrinsically straight or gay, the choice of celibacy as vowed state should achieve the same result: a chaste life devoted to Christ and devoid of sexual sin.

Sadly, the same people who want you to think that the problem is celibacy itself also wish you to believe that it is a greater problem for heterosexual men than gays. For example, in late September, St. Louis TV station KSDK filed a report on an upcoming inspection by the Vatican of a St. Louis seminary, Aquinas Institute of Theology. In the report, it quoted Barbara Dorris, a member of S.N.A.P. (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), a well known advocacy group based in Chicago:

“A homosexual is not a pedophile. To make this a homosexual issue is just wrong." (She) said half the victims of abuse by priests are females, "A homosexual is no more likely to abuse a child than a heterosexual. This is a smokescreen, a diversion of blame. A way to change the subject. This is not about homosexuality."

Problem: the statement contains several bits of what can only be charitably described as misinformation. There is one true statement, followed by several with challenges: it is true that homosexuals are not automatically pedophiles (though there are homosexual pedophiliacs). However, half the victims were not female. In fact, 81% were male, and the majority were not pre-pubescent children. Thus the SNAP spokesperson’s contributions to the report were worthless, from a journalistic point of view. A little more research by the reporter and/or editor might have improved the story.

But that doesn’t happen that often in modern media reports, such as the Associated Press story circulating in the secular media last weekend detailing the anger of one Father Fred Daley of Utica, N.Y., a self-described celibate gay priest who does not believe that homosexuality should be implicated in the abuse crisis. Although Fr. Daley revealed his sexual orientation to his congregation nearly a year and a half ago, the new story refreshes a “disturbed” and “angry” priest who nonetheless is still supported by his bishop and most parishioners. One has to ask, “Where’s the beef?” unless you consider that the reporter needed a first person witness to back up the story's next un-attributed and unsupported claim:

Researchers have estimated that thousands of homosexual clergy across the United States have dedicated their lives to a church that considers them "intrinsically disordered" and prone to "evil tendencies."

This, dear readers, is pure nonsense. It is propaganda.

First, who are these researchers? The author does not say. What studies have revealed this?

Second, and more important, it is the behavior that is disordered, not the man.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it states:

2357 Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved. (Bold emphasis added.)

The next two sections discuss the individual man or woman affected. Note how careful the Church is not to condemn or revile:

2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

At no time does this official teaching of the Church condemn an individual just because they are gay.

Let’s go back to that AP story and examine the one statement:

Researchers have estimated that thousands of homosexual clergy across the United States have dedicated their lives to a church that considers them "intrinsically disordered" and prone to "evil tendencies."

We’ve already emasculated the part of the phrase that says “a church that considers them intrinsically disordered.” Let’s tackle the rest of it: “Prone to evil tendencies.”

Please play attention, you reporters in the mainstream media. This is what the Church believes: All human beings, men and women, straight and gay, are prone to evil tendencies. It is a part of the human condition.

Just to make this simple, who isn’t “prone to evil tendencies”? As Saint Paul said, “For there is no distinction; all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God.” (Romans 3: 22-23)

Christians believe that we inherit these evil tendencies, our fallen nature, from the original prototype humans, Adam and Eve. They were created without knowledge of sin but with free will. They sinned through disobedience, and the loss of fellowship with God has been a problem ever since. The solution is faith in Christ, baptism and the sacraments, and the active daily struggle to walk with Jesus. These are the remedies that all people, straight or gay, must seek.

What qualifies a man for the priesthood? There are many things but none include his sexuality; rather, it is his ability to deny his sexual urges for the sake of the Kingdom. Any man who cannot keep his vows of celibacy and live chastely has no business in the priesthood. In one sense, the office is more important than the man, for the priest represents Jesus before the faithful.

The faithful deserve a priesthood they can trust far more than troubled individuals deserve an opportunity to prove themselves capable of trust. There is too much at stake and too much damage already has taken place.

If the Church can require a married catechist (a teacher of students) to undergo a criminal background check, several hours of training in how to spot child abuse and how to improve conditions so that it does not occur, and then is required to team teach so that at no time is the catechist ever alone, one on one, with any student, then it does not seem out of line that the Church requires a thorough testing of its seminarians to ensure that no practicing homosexual, or one who has had trouble staying celibate, ever attains the priestly office.

Both are prudent actions. Both are welcome and necessary.

Keep this in mind as all hell breaks loose in the media in the coming months. The aggressive gay advocacy groups are already planning their campaign in alliance with other liberal groups who share the same goal: the dismantling of an effective Roman Catholic Church in America.

They will do so by distorting the truth, attempting to manipulate your emotions, and by taking advantage of every opportunity to dishearten you, to weaken your faith and trust, to guide you toward abandoning your faith. And they will have opportunities because the Church a 100% human institution. Humans have weaknesses. We make mistakes.

But the Church is also a 100% divine institution. It is, after all, the Body of Christ in all respects. Just as Jesus was 100% human AND 100% divine, and just as Jesus’ body was broken and crucified for the sins of the world, but arose glorified and resurrected, so too the Church is broken and crucified for His sake, and will endure and be glorified at the end of the age.

Keep the faith. The gates of hell, and those who attend them, haven’t a chance. [Oklahomily, November 14, 2005]