Being Catholic with SSA

  • Thread starter Thread starter allen2690
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
gfvh said:
I may be wrong but due to recent sex abuse scandals I think priests cannot be gay. It’s a new regulation.
Regarding your cross. Think about it like something honourable. I haven’t got any ssa but I think I am called to be single. And I know it’s wrong to be proud but I feel sort of proud of it. Maybe being a little proud of carrying a cross makes you able to carry it with more ease.
Click to expand...
Homosexuality and paedophilia are two different things. Both boys and girls have been sexually abused by clergy members.
 
I don’t know the exact motive of that measure but I read somewhere, if I recall correctly, it was sex abuse. Maybe the statistics show a preponderance of boys abused.

But Tis Bearself posted more info about it. Maybe people with ssa can be priests if their ssa is controlled.
 
I couldn’t find any info on it. Ok, I admit I misread it or I did recall it not so correctly. 😊
 
gfvh said:
I couldn’t find any info on it. Ok, I admit I misread it or I did recall it not so correctly. 😊
Click to expand...
Fair enough. What I was thinking was not so much about the statistics themselves, but more about the way people think about homosexual persons. (Consider: if a study showed that the percentage of left-handed people who committed crimes was higher than the percentage for the overall population, would that cause left-handed people to come under suspicion?)
 
Peter_J said:
Fair enough. What I was thinking was not so much about the statistics themselves, but more about the way people think about homosexual persons. (Consider: if a study showed that the percentage of left-handed people who committed crimes was higher than the percentage for the overall population, would that cause left-handed people to come under suspicion?)
Click to expand...
That makes perfect sense. I don’t know where I read it. I think it was here 🙂 Sorry if it was offensive.
 
allen2690 said:
Thanks for the information. I didn’t even know about that document. I’ll be sure to look it up. I’m actually thinking of entering the religious life as a brother rather than a priest and if I am not called to that, there is always the option of joining a third order.
Click to expand...
It is important to be called, not to seek out that life as though it is “all that’s available to me” or some similar thought.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
That was also my question. There have been priests who are gay but celibate. While I do not recommend anyone trying to become a priest who is not truly called, there is nothing about sexual orientation that would preclude it, as long as you do not give in to temptation of having sex.

Edited to add, I know there is a document put out in 2005…
Click to expand...
The document: vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20051104_istruzione_en.html

Extracts from it:
"In the light of such teaching, … the Church… cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called “gay culture”.

Such persons, in fact, find themselves in a situation that gravely hinders them from relating correctly to men and women. One must in no way overlook the negative consequences that can derive from the ordination of persons with deep-seated homosexual tendencies.

Different, however, would be the case in which one were dealing with homosexual tendencies that were only the expression of a transitory problem - for example, that of an adolescence not yet superseded. Nevertheless, such tendencies must be clearly overcome at least three years before ordination to the diaconate."
 
DaddyGirl said:
He thinks same-sex attraction is an illness?
Click to expand...
I think the word is used rather more broadly than the medical sphere.
You give many on this forum a big learning moment by saying the above…that SSA isn’t something a person chooses to have and something often experience from a very young age…something that cannot be “cured” by what some “reparative therapy” which is outlawed in many states and can be very harmful.
Click to expand...
Perhaps you have conducted a poll here, but I think most on this forum would agree that:
  • SSA is not chosen;
  • SSA is often experienced from a young age;
  • There is no accepted medical or psychological ‘cure’;
  • The cause is not known.
Can you not have all of the above, but without the sex?
It’s not a “sin” or “abomination” to exchange love and affection with someone of the same gender. It’s not a “sin” for you to have a family of your own. From what I understand, it is the sex part that is supposed to be the “sin”, right?
Click to expand...
Certainly SSA does not equal a life without love. But an intimate relationship of the kind I understood the OP to describe would tend to lead toward a sexual relationship.
 
allen2690 said:
Thanks for the information. I didn’t even know about that document. I’ll be sure to look it up. I’m actually thinking of entering the religious life as a brother rather than a priest and if I am not called to that, there is always the option of joining a third order.
Click to expand...
Irregardless of what your priest says, what applies to you is what applies to everybody:

What is the ministry of the order you are looking at, and do you have the aptitudes? It’s not inferior not to have.

By all means discuss this with lots of orders.

You could always be part of the lay soup like me and be “un-ordered”!
 
Rau said:
Certainly SSA does not equal a life without love. But an intimate relationship of the kind I understood the OP to describe would tend to lead toward a sexual relationship.
Click to expand...
I don’t know, Rau. Our society “encodes” such relationships as sexual, but can’t a person break their programming and rebel? I don’t tend to think a single same-sex friendship is advisable as one’s full support system, at all, but intimate friendships can be part of a larger structure of support. And that CAN provide tons of the things the OP wants, without the sex. 🤷
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top