Wednesday, September 28
Silver Lining
I have to say, the media fall-out from the announcement that the Vatican plans to "ban gay priests" has had one really unexpected silver lining:
Never did I think I would ever see the secular priest avidly asserting the innocence of the vast majority of Catholic priests.
Now, this has mostly focused on the defense of the (real or imagined, no one really knows) legions of homosexual priests, but that's fine by me, because the vast majority of them are innocent.
I just really like reading that in the New York Times, etc. Certainly not the picture they painted a year ago.
And don't even start me on how, until rumors of a "ban" started to circulate, the priesthood was constantly derided for being "too gay." Again, without any real numbers.
Whatever.
One reporter on the Vatican I asked, and he ought to know, told me that the document is a given, it's going to happen. OK, so be that as it may. But I also want to point out that this NOT a "ban," probably it will take the form of a "minor impediment to ordination," just like a number of other conditions. Until 1983, being born out of wedlock was a "minor impediment to ordination." This doesn't mean that gay people won't be ordained ever; it means that special permission will be required, and anyone who thinks that permission will NEVER be granted is fooling themselves. It may be rare, but it won't be never.
I have to say, the media fall-out from the announcement that the Vatican plans to "ban gay priests" has had one really unexpected silver lining:
Never did I think I would ever see the secular priest avidly asserting the innocence of the vast majority of Catholic priests.
Now, this has mostly focused on the defense of the (real or imagined, no one really knows) legions of homosexual priests, but that's fine by me, because the vast majority of them are innocent.
I just really like reading that in the New York Times, etc. Certainly not the picture they painted a year ago.
And don't even start me on how, until rumors of a "ban" started to circulate, the priesthood was constantly derided for being "too gay." Again, without any real numbers.
Whatever.
One reporter on the Vatican I asked, and he ought to know, told me that the document is a given, it's going to happen. OK, so be that as it may. But I also want to point out that this NOT a "ban," probably it will take the form of a "minor impediment to ordination," just like a number of other conditions. Until 1983, being born out of wedlock was a "minor impediment to ordination." This doesn't mean that gay people won't be ordained ever; it means that special permission will be required, and anyone who thinks that permission will NEVER be granted is fooling themselves. It may be rare, but it won't be never.
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