Bishops Begin Distancing from Vatican Document on Gays in Priesthood

  • Thread starter Thread starter WanderAimlessly
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
W

WanderAimlessly

Guest
Looks like the lines are being drawn:
Bishops Begin Distancing from Vatican Document on Gays in Priesthood
By Hilary White

November 30, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - After last week’s leak of the long-awaited Vatican document on homosexuals and the priesthood, LifeSiteNews.com reported that the anticipated ban was prompting dissenters to reveal themselves publicly. Now that the document has been officially released and Vatican officials have clarified that indeed the intention is to bar those with serious and persistent homosexual temptations from ordination, reports are coming in of bishops and other Catholic clergy openly or subtly dissenting. The reaction is further revealing the deep rift that has long been observable between much of the US episcopate and the teachings and disciplines of the Catholic Church.

Full Story
Click to expand...
PF
 
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the archbishop of Westminster, said in an official statement, “The Instruction is not saying that men of homosexual orientation are not welcome in the priesthood.” This despite the fact that the document says exactly the opposite
Click to expand...
His words don’t seem very well chosen considering his position. His words sound cowardly…very disappointing.
 
40.png
WanderAimlessly:
Looks like the lines are being drawn: PF
Click to expand...
Like with Humane Vitae, there will be a great deal of dissent.
 
40.png
nohome:
Like with Humanae Vitae, there will be a great deal of dissent.
Click to expand...
Of course, and this instruction does not even have the weight of an encyclical.

John
 
It is sad to see so many bishops either being disobedient or not clued in to the Church’s teaching on this. My understanding is that no encyclical was called for because this topic has been addressed before (just not followed as Fr. Fessio --among others- has pointed out). Years before the clergy abuse crisis, there were signs of this:

catholic.net/rcc/Periodicals/Igpress/2000-11/essay.html
 
John Higgins:
Of course, and this instruction does not even have the weight of an encyclical.

John
Click to expand...
Oh yes John but there is the private Vatican Seminary Reviews
This little paper that you and nohome discount reinforces the larger project.

Archbishop Edwin O’Brien is coordinator of the seminary review says this
ARCHBISHOP EDWIN O’BRIEN: We don’t want our people to think, as our culture is now saying, there’s really no difference whether one is gay or straight, is homosexual or heterosexual. We think for our vocation that there is a difference, and our people expect to have a male priesthood that sets a strong role model of maleness.
Click to expand...
MONSIGNOR STEVE ROHLFS: That’s probably the single most important thing that a parish expects of a priest: They want him to be a man of God who can teach them how to pray well. They also want him to know the faith. They want him to be able to communicate it to them in a way that can inspire them.
Click to expand...
REV. ROBERT SILVA: Men of homosexual orientation are going to go to the seminary. There’s no question about it. They’re simply not going to say that that’s their orientation.

JUDY VALENTE: You would say that it might force homosexuals underground in the seminary.

REV. ROBERT SILVA: Oh, it’s not might; it will.
Click to expand...
So be it.
 
Is the Vatican going to do anything about these bishops?
 
40.png
WanderAimlessly:
An iteresting article I posted in Liturgy & Sacraments sites a decision from 810 AD. Here is the link:Ban on Homosexual Men From Priesthood Was Always in Place-Decision from 810 AD. Cited

PF
Click to expand...
Interesting
Immediately I imagined what these decision-making men looked like so many years ago…drawing the same conclusion that men have made today…There are some things that science cannot and will not ever explain away…and intimidation slogans will not topple the truth.
 
40.png
4HisChurch:
Is the Vatican going to do anything about these bishops?
Click to expand...
Maybe the Vatican won’t need to. Perhaps in time the bishops will do something on their own.

Time…we all must give this a little time. The seminary reviews are still going on. The ban on homosexuals to the priesthood was just released. We can’t expect immediate law and order…as much as we may desire it.
 
40.png
contemplative:
His words don’t seem very well chosen considering his position. His words sound cowardly…very disappointing.
Click to expand...
I find that a very disappointing attitude to take considering what a great man Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor is. I think you ought to be more careful with representing his position:
English Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said in a statement that all priests need to live lives of celibate chastity, whatever their sexual orientation.
Click to expand...
“Bishops must ensure that men are not admitted to the priesthood for whom its requirements and demands will be too burdensome or impossible to fulfill,” the cardinal said.
Click to expand...
“The instruction is not saying than men of homosexual orientation are not welcome in the priesthood. But it is making clear that they must be capable of affective maturity, have a capacity for celibacy and not share the values of the eroticized gay culture. This is especially important because seminaries are all-male environments,” Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor said.
Click to expand...
catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0506784.htm

Sounds very sensible to me. The Cardinal is an excellent upholder of the faith.

Mike
 
To vaguely quote the “Colbert Report”

“Why does the Church care so much about the sex that their priest are not having?”

lol. love the show.
 
40.png
Gnosis:
To vaguely quote the “Colbert Report”

“Why does the Church care so much about the sex that their priest are not having?”

lol. love the show.
Click to expand...
If the disordered priests had been able to keep their hands to themselves, it probably would not be such a big issue. Don’t you read the news?
 
John Higgins:
Of course, and this instruction does not even have the weight of an encyclical.

John
Click to expand...
Yes, it is simply a clarification of what has been “on the books” for decades. As always, some will be loyal to Rome and others will defy Rome and thumb their noses.
 
His words don’t seem very well chosen considering his position. His words sound cowardly…very disappointing.
Click to expand...
Cardinal Murphy O’Connor is a brilliant leader and pastor, I deeply respect his words. Further more, I cannot see how the Cardinal is being cowardly, being one of only very few to even have discussed the new document.
 
40.png
contemplative:
His words don’t seem very well chosen considering his position. His words sound cowardly…very disappointing.
Click to expand...
I wonder what the agenda of the original news source was to take the Cardinal’s words out of context by deleting the 2nd half. Here is the full text:
The Instruction is not saying than men of homosexual orientation are not welcome in the priesthood. But it is making clear that they must be capable of affective maturity, have a capacity for celibacy and not share the values of the eroticised gay culture. This is especially important because seminaries are largely all-male environments.
Click to expand...
Furthermore, I think we need to be less cynical regarding our Bishop’s responses. This Pope and his selection of former San Francisco Archbishop as his successor at the CDF indicates that the American Church will recieve enhanced focus and with that will be greater expectation of conformance. A rush to judgment is not appropriate.
 
Skylstad’s comments are the opening salvo in what promises to be a wide-ranging battle within the U.S. church over the document’s implementation. Bishop John M. D’Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., said yesterday that Skylstad’s interpretation is “simply wrong” – a rare public clash among bishops, who usually go to great lengths to preserve an image of collegiality, even when they disagree.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/29/AR2005112901852.html
Click to expand...
 
why put so much blame on the u.s. bishops? it does say “deep-seated” in the document. if the vatican wanted to not admit anyone with homosexual tendencies it would have said so. it is only unambiguosly barring candidates who would be actively homosexual from the seminary.

the vatican and pope know that bishops will take various interpretations of the document. it is left “nuanced” for a reason -to let bishops decide how to apply it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top