There's No Need to Be Unhappy...

"Men who have 'deep-rooted homosexual tendencies' or who sustain a 'gay culture' may not be trained to become Roman Catholic priests, the Vatican says in a new document posted Tuesday on a Catholic news website.

However, the church says, if a man had 'transitory' homosexual tendencies that have been 'overcome' for at least three years, he may be admitted to a seminary, the school that trains priests.

The document was quickly criticized by some gay rights sympathizers, who say the church does not understand homosexuality."

LA Times

Never mind the long convoluted history of sex in the church- I guess I should say "The Church"- the Vatican's general position on homosexual priests was that one could not be actively gay and be a priest. That meant you could be gay but you couldn't do gay. This was consistent with the approach to celibacy for non-gay priests. You could be not gay but not do not gay (?). There are problems with this but at least it was consistent.

That part about tendencies though; that's new. I wonder what, if anything, that means for not gay priests, but even more I wonder what exactly "deep-rooted homosexual tendencies" or a "gay culture" are. If it's what I think it is- why does it matter? I don't imagine Paris Hilton or the characters from Sex & The City want to be priests anyway.

I'm not a gay Catholic priest; I'll never be a gay Catholic priest, but I think this feeds (and exists because of) a lot of the nonsense surrounding issues of sexuality in the church; so it matters to me and others too. I don't buy the approach to sex (and sometimes the universe in general) the Catholic church and a lot of the rest of the church rely on. (Hmm, that's loaded.) I don't mean it's inconvenient to me so I reject it. I mean it's wrong- as far as I understand it and Christianity.

If you work with the understanding that actions in themselves have value attached to them then you would say something like, "Don't do 'X'" or, "Be sure to do 'Not X' and you're in the club." In short- every act of sex has to be open to reproduction or it's wrong is the "Not X." Gay just like not gay celibacy fits that. But the tendency and culture parts change things. It may be a good change if it brings us to see actions connected to people. It seems more though that it will simply broaden the list of prohibited acts. We'll see.

The whole document will be released on the 29th; we'll know more then. But right now, how silly is it to believe there is a "gay culture" or "tendencies" that are sin that bar one from being a priest? All I can imagine are stupid stereotypes or absurdly hilarious questionnaires and interviews with a lot of "Do you now or have you ever..." type questions.

Sitting In Limbo- Jimmy Cliff
Uptight- Stevie Wonder
Jackass- Green Day
Last Stop: This Town- The Eels
Heroes- David Bowie
American Idiot- Green Day
She Watch Channel Zero?!- Public Enemy
The Guns of Brixton- The Clash