What would you say to a homosexual who wants to be a priest in the RCC?

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If they don’t “recognize themselves as homosexual”, then do they recognize themselves as heterosexuals. Do we want priests to be heterosexual? Perhaps we want priests to be asexual?

Priests and religious take vows of chastity. If they can live up to those vows it makes little difference if they have same sex or opposite sex attraction.

Their discernment is probably as difficult, regardless of their sexual orientation, as it should be.
 
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My hunch is that laymen like myself don’t really know enough about the priesthood to offer intelligent guidance here. There’s a dimension I really don’t grasp, about the Maleness of the priest, celibacy, about sexuality of this state.
 
We are all called to be chase. If he is sure and has demonstrated that he can keep his vow of chastity, then he should be allowed.
 
EOvsRC1054 said:
If a person who recognizes themselves as homosexual, but also wants to be a priest, what would you say to that person?
Taking this even further, if the person had all the attributes of making a good priest and would willingly commit themselves to chastity, would any of your views change?

I am just curious to see what other people think.

(imagine yourself as the vocation’s director)
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I would ask him why he wanted to be a priest. Start a conversation about how his life reflects his interest in Christ or the Church…

Somewhere along the way I imagine sexuality would come up, but there is a lot I would want to know before I ever got to that discussion.
 
If we believe, truly, that God calls men to the priesthood, who are we to deny it?

That there might be Church rules against allowing gay men to enter the seminary says more about the effectiveness of seminary indoctrination and enculturation than it does about the will of God.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Furthermore, if that were a requirement, then our married priests in the Eastern churches and those who have converted from Protestant clergy to Catholic clergy would be failing the “sacrifice” test because they have wives and often, children.
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I specified “Roman Rite” for precisely this reason.
 
"CALDE:
If he is sure and has demonstrated that he can keep his vow of chastity, then he should be allowed.
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What kind of “demonstration” would you ask him to give?
 
God calls men to obedience to His Church’s legitimate authority – the same as Jesus was obedient to His Father, even when He dreaded the Father’s will. (eg. “If it be possible let this cup pass from Me.” Mt. 26:39

Thus, even a VERY strong personal desire to be a priest does not mean it is God calling him to the priesthood. God calls no one to be disobedient to His church.
 
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BartholomewB said:
What would I say? I would say No. It’s too much of a risk.

um_favicon.ico
Urban Milwaukee

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

House Confidential: Rembert Weakland’s Blandly Secular Apartment ​

Rejected in his attempts to live among fellow monks, Weakland resides anonymously in a south side seniors complex.
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I have to ask, what’s wrong with this? It looks like a perfectly decent place to me. Everybody has to live somewhere. Where is it written that a retired prelate has to live in ecclesiastical quarters?

And the article refers to him at one point as “Fr.” Weakland (quotes theirs). Was he ever laicized? He remains a bishop and priest of God. Who among us has not sinned? Have there not been many people who were brought to greater holiness and sanctity by receiving sacraments at his hand? We are not Donatists.

I’m no fan of Archbishop Weakland’s theology or tenure as archbishop, but I do not like to see anyone attacked unjustly. So he was a gay man who went into the service of the Church? In his time, this was “the love that dare not speak its name”. It was considered a disgrace. Was he the only gay man who ever went into the Church?
 
HomeschoolDad said:
I’m no fan of Archbishop Weakland’s theology or tenure as archbishop, but I do not like to see anyone attacked unjustly.
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I don’t know much about his tenure but it didn’t take long to find some damaging info…

www.ncregister.com

‘Sign of Our Repentance’: Weakland’s Name Expunged From Milwaukee Church Building

COMMENTARY: Personal corruption, more than bad governance, should have been the main reason for Archbishop Listecki to remove his predecessor’s name.
www.ncregister.com www.ncregister.com
 
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The Roman Rite has some married priests. I’ve met converted Anglican priests and a converted Lutheran priest who were married with children.
 
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HomeschoolDad said:
Was he the only gay man who ever went into the Church?
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I’m not implying that he was a unique case. On the contrary, if there had never been any other cases of the same kind, a single exceptional occurrence could be ignored as irrelevant. I’m giving just one example of what I mean by “too much of a risk.”
 
Well, on the other hand we have Fr. Mychal Judge who it turns out was gay but is not known to have ever broken his vows and was by all accounts an exceptional priest right up till he became the first numbered casualty of 9/11.
 
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A few people knew Fr. Mychal was gay (he told them so). Others suspected it based on rumors. He also struggled with some temptation related to it but apparently managed to keep it under control. I remember a story he told about when he was in the seminary and there was a speech given to all the seminarians about homosexuality and how if anybody thought they would have a problem with that then they should leave the seminary. Apparently a number of seminarians left, including Fr. Mychal’s roommate. He chose to stay so I guess he figured he could keep himself in check.

My guess is that there are some gay priests but there are likely quite a few who are rumored to be gay but actually aren’t. I say that because I know a lot of straight men who have some kind of physical characteristic that causes some people to assume they must be gay, but in reality they are not.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
My guess is that there are some gay priests but there are likely quite a few who are rumored to be gay but actually aren’t. I say that because I know a lot of straight men who have some kind of physical characteristic that causes some people to assume they must be gay, but in reality they are not.
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It is no secret that there are a lot of gay priests. Many of them are very good priests. Some are exceptional priests, like Father Mychal. Most are probably average priests, and some are bad priests, I am sure, just like straight priests. I am also sure there are priests that are believed to be gay, but are not, and vice versa. They are human beings, much like the rest of us.
 
BartholomewB said:
What would I say? I would say No. It’s too much of a risk.

um_favicon.ico
Urban Milwaukee

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

House Confidential: Rembert Weakland’s Blandly Secular Apartment ​

Rejected in his attempts to live among fellow monks, Weakland resides anonymously in a south side seniors complex.
Click to expand...
I honestly feel bad for Weaklands. He made certainly mistakes (especially handling the sex abuse in his diocese) but he also dedicated his life to the priesthood. He is an old man now, he cannot hurt anybody and he is getting ready to the end of his life. It is, in my opinion, awful, that no religious community would let him spent the rest of his life with them. They are treating him as an outcast with no chance of redemption.
 
The article, which is old, suggests that he tried to move to only two religious communities. At one of them he had previously had a high profile and they were dealing with a scandal of their own and didn’t need another, so it makes sense they told him no. At a second one he could have moved there if he hadn’t published a controversial memoir that in hindsight probably would have been better just left in a drawer. There are many other monasteries out there that might have considered him - being rejected by two places is hardly equivalent to being turned down everywhere - but it sounds like he went back to his relatively fancy apartment.
 
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That is why Pope Benedict said it is not just about being chaste. If it was just about being chaste then any person could potentially be an ordained priest.
 
yankeesouth said:
That is why Pope Benedict said it is not just about being chaste. If it was just about being chaste then any person could potentially be an ordained priest.
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True. It’s not just about being chaste. It’s also not just about which sex a priest, seminarian, or religious may be attracted to. There is there is so much more involved, that a “whole person” approach is truly necessary, psychological, spiritual, psychosexual, physical, emotional. There are plenty of incredible priest that’s are attracted to men, and lead holy lives. I wouldn’t be surprised if some are saints. There are also some who didn’t lead righteous lives as priest…or cardinals. And the same is true for priests that are attracted to women. Some very holy ones, some not. Being a priest of Christ is far more than sexual attraction, there are other characteristics that are far more important.
 
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