Tuesday, November 23, 2010

From the Past: Vatican Decision to Purge Seminaries of Gays

Going through some of my past journals these days for one reason and another, and I have just noticed the following passage that I wrote on 23 September 2005.  Reading this in conjunction with the discussion of Benedict's statements about condoms is telling--to me, at least:



The Vatican appears poised to issue a statement forbidding ordination to gays.  John Allen says this merely reaffirms a long-standing prohibition.

This spectacularly misses the point.  Context is everything.  Coming on the heels of the abuse crisis, this is--and will be everywhere perceived as--a statement about that crisis.

It is a 'solution,' a way of identifying and containing the blame.  It is a deceitful, cruel, mendacious scapegoating tactic, and will bring further shame to the Vatican and U.S. bishops.

It is also a statement about gay people, about who we are (disordered) and where we belong (outside the salvific circle, away from the table).  It is a gauntlet thrown down in the face of modern science and psychology, an in-your-face tactic of astonishing contempt.  It's a sop to prejudice that will engender violence.  . . . .

The silence of bishops--as a body--in face of injustice is complicity with injustice.  As in the Nazi era, so now. . . . .

Some priests are talking about wearing pink triangles, of feeling outcast from the church they love.  Where have they been all these years that lay Catholics who are gay have experienced the same savagery and exclusion?  Where have the pink triangles been?

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