Homosexuals and the Priesthood:
Should ordination be mine because I want it?

16 July 2005

by Joshua R. LeBlanc

I have been increasingly agitated at various blogs that have chosen to believe that their word must be the divine Word of God and that all of their desires and wants are divinely inspired.

In doing so they have chosen to use their blogs to further their political agenda and spread odious fallacies.  Do not misunderstand me; I am not a person who believes that labels are useless.  I believe, and rightly so, that labels help us to identify who we are, where we fit into the whole grand scheme of things.  We label ourselves Catholic to differentiate ourselves from other Christians who chose to reject portions of the historical teachings of Christ and his Church (this is a fact, not a jab at non-Catholics.)  I do however have a problem with individuals, who erroneously claim the Church to be a bigot and the Pope to be “rooted in the exclusionary tendencies of the Roman Catholic Church across the ages.”  To make such a statement is egregiously wrong.

 To these individuals I say “get your facts straight before you start making accusations and claims!”  One particular blogger, whom I will not name out of Christian charity, can never make up his mind on any subject.  One day he is claiming that he accepts the teaching Magisterium of the Church, the next day he is shooting off at the mouth about Her as though he were a loose cannon!  This type of display is schizophrenic at best and deliberately tyrannical at worst.

So as not to divert from the real subject from this post, I will make my point and get on with it.  Individuals who make claims against the Church do so on three levels: Emotion, Personal Desire, and Certitude of Position.

Emotion

The individual I mention above’s entire argument that the Church is a bigot is based primarily on the fact that the Church is soon to release a document banning homosexuals from the priesthood of Jesus Christ.  This particular individual believes he has a call to the priesthood and because of this, the Church is a bigot.I’d be very weary of making such a claim against an entity that has been around approximately 100 times longer than I have!  Let’s get some facts straight about the Church and the Calling to the priesthood.  As individuals we don’t call ourselves to the priesthood nor do we discern alone, we discern a possible call to the priesthood.  As the Church that Jesus Christ founded, it is the Church’s responsibility to discern if an individual is indeed being called to the Priesthood or not.  This call is never one that is decided by the individual, but by Jesus Christ himself through the ministry of the Church.  Therefore, those who would claim “I am called to the priesthood but the Church won’t ordain me” are advocating fallacy and ignorance.

What is the practicality of barring homosexual men in the priesthood?  For those of you who are unaware, I was a seminarian for 4 years discerning a call to the priesthood.  In my four years of living in a seminary community, I have learned the practical reasons for barring homosexuals from the priesthood. In my early years, I even advocated that homosexual men should be allowed to be priests as long as they were celibate.  My position has since changed.

I have learned that for many homosexual men that seminary has become somewhat of a haven, a place to “hide out” per se from the problems of the world.  I would presume that many homosexual men who enter seminary enter with honest intentions – to presume otherwise is simply arrogance.  I believe they want to truly live a celibate lifestyle, but for whatever reason many leave because they initially believe the problem will go away but find out that it doesn’t.  I know this for a fact and have seen it with my own eyes.  Some of my seminary brothers were indeed homosexual men and even to this day I consider some of them friends.  I have learned that three different things happen to homosexuals when they enter the seminary.  They either leave because they learn that being celibate is too difficult when you are constantly around other men, get kicked out because they have failed to remain celibate with others or they slip under radar, get ordained and don’t become very integrated individuals, therefore causing problems in the Church somewhere down the line – whether that be in inappropriate relationships or with regard to Church teaching.  This is the case about 99% of the time.  The 1% of men who don’t fall into this category do make good priests, but they will tell you it is very difficult to leave in a rectory with other priests.  It is not this 1% that I am concerned about, but the 99% that have caused the church to be racked with sex abuse scandals and financial woes over the past thirty years.  There are also those who will claim that it isn’t a problem for two homosexual men to live in a rectory together.  This is nothing more than turning a blind eye.  To assume this, one would also have to assume that a young couple could cohabitate and abstain from sexual relations.  We all know this to not be the case.

As a heterosexual former seminarian, I will tell you it is also very difficult to discern a vocation when you have those homosexual men around you who aren’t committed to celibacy and are indeed fornicating with each other as though no one else knows about it. (As a side note I will not fault the administration of the particular seminary I attended for this sort of behavior.  They did not know about it and when it did come to light these individuals were explicated.)  It truly created a culture where those men who were heterosexual (and faithful to celibacy) were the minority and felt like odd men out.  Is this the way that we promote vocations to the priesthood?  This is sort of the same kind of phenomena you find going on in parishes these days where the number of altar boys is dwindling due to an increase of  female altar servers.  From this standpoint alone barring homosexuals from the priesthood is practical and not only is it practical – it’s actually vocation promoting for those men who are really dedicated to celibacy and Church teaching (not their own interpretation of it!)

Now that we’ve looked at the practical aspect, let’s look at some other issues regarding this blogger’s apparent enmity for the Catholic Church and the Pope.

Personal Desire

How does personal desire fit into the picture?  When did we ever get the idea that when it comes to the commandments, laws, etc. of Christ and his Church that God gives a damn about what individuals want?  If, as Paul says in his first letter to Timothy, the “Church is the Pillar and Bulwark of Truth,” then why do individuals constantly find it necessary to shoot off at the mouth as though he/she is the anointed Apostle of God and all knowledge comes through them?  Let’s get something straight -- the Church is infallible in her teachings and the Pope is infallible in matters of faith and morals.  As individuals, the only thing we can be infallible in is the certitude of death and taxes – and even the second one is debatable..  

The point I make is that Christ promised us he would be with us always, even until the end of time.  Not through ourselves, but through the Church.  When it comes to making a choice between “Catholics” like Frances Kissling, who are place themselves on pedestals of assumed authority or the true Pope, His Holiness Benedict XVI, most Catholics are going to err on the side of an individual who is anointed as the Vicar of Christ rather than the head of a make-believe Catholic organization that hasn’t gotten a dime in private Catholic donations in years!

Certitude of Position

The only way one could make such a preposterous claim that the Church is a bigot is because of assumed certitude that their modern day thoughts are the correct ones and that the Church’s teaching for the past 2000 years has been fabricated.  It is highly suspect here as to whose position is the incorrect one.The problem in all of this lies in original sin, the sin of Adam, the sin of pride.  We have placed our ideas, our thoughts and our wants up on the same pedestal as the commands of God the Most High.  Let’s remember humility and deference to God, His Church, and His Vicar – Pope Benedict XVI!  Simply becoming a member of a different religion doesn’t solve this problem.  It is beyond understand why someone would choose to leave the Catholic Church, who choose to leave the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist for reasons based on pride.  Let’s try adhering to the words of St. John “He must increase, I must decrease” Jn. 3:30.If you want to complain about the Church and its bigotries towards homosexuals, I suggest first reading the former Cardinal Ratzinger’s document on “On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons.”  We then have to ask ourselves the importation question:  Is the Church homophobic or are those members who disagree with Her heterophobic?  You be the judge.