Vatican may act on homosexual priests

It will be interesting to see what happens on this: Vatican prepares draft directives against admitting gays as priests. It seems an issue the Church can’t dodge, but it also seems that the post-Vatican II habit of finding some way to make common cause with every tendency approved by modernity is impossibly difficult to break. For an example, consider the Swiss bishops, who just rejected gay marriages while apologizing for past discrimination against gays. The official doctrine that homosexual acts are “objectively disordered” is recognized, and some ceremonies are allowed to reflect it, but it’s sinful for social habits and attitudes to reflect the doctrine in any way that has practical significance. Catholic moral doctrine on sexuality—which is, after all, an utterly basic constituent of human life and how people live together—thus becomes pure formality.

In a somewhat related development, the Vatican is also preparing a document that would cut back on use of the methods of “modern psychology” in evaluating candidates for the priesthood. Getting people to follow such pronouncements is like pushing an over-cooked noodle, but each bit helps.
Posted by Jim Kalb at October 10, 2002 08:12 AM | Send