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T he best Westerns have always been buddy movies, but in Annie Proulx's "Brokeback Mountain," two cowboys fear the love they feel for one another will provoke the sort of homophobic rage that murdered Matthew Shepard. Now it seems Catholic seminarians – even if they keep their vows of celibacy – have equally good reasons to hide what Rome has dubbed their "deep-seated homosexual tendencies." In November the Vatican released its "Instruction" banning homosexual seminarians and two weeks later a pair of Vatican "investigators" visited Bishop White Seminary in search of a "homosexual subculture" festering among the seminarians or their fellow collegians. Rome claims to oppose "every sign of unjust discrimination" against homosexuals, but both the Instruction and seminary visitation implicitly scapegoat gays for the pedophilia scandal. The current seminary visitation, called in response to the pedophilia crisis, has investigators asking about a "homosexual subculture" at the seminary, giving the distinct impression that men with a "deep-seated homosexual tendency" were the cause of the scandal. Meanwhile, the Instruction warns that the "current situation" makes it more urgent to turn away gay candidates, and an accompanying piece in L'Osservatore Romano asserts that "the scandals that have impacted the ecclesial community" prove the folly of ordaining homosexuals. So, the pedophilia crisis resulted from ordaining gay men. Never mind that the typical pedophile is a heterosexual male. Rome goes on to offer the extraordinary and unsupported assertion that homosexuality (or the possession of "deep-seated homosexual tendencies") is a psychological disorder, reflecting a lack of "affective maturity," and a failure to achieve a "mature masculinity." The Vatican offers no psychological or clinical studies in support of this claim, and makes no mention of the American Psychological Association's dismissal of this diagnosis more than 30 years ago. Nor does the Vatican offer any proof for its claims that those with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" suffer from a myriad of psychological problems rendering them unfit for ministry. Rome reports that homosexual men are gravely hindered from "relating correctly to men and women," and that gay priests form few friendships, resent demands made on them by parishioners, and rely on "seduction and rejection" in their dealings with authority. And such men, the Vatican asserts, cannot authentically represent a healthy Christ, or become appropriate bridegrooms to the church or the spiritual fathers of parishes. Such men are unfit for ministry, Rome asserts, even if they keep their vow of celibacy. For them the celibacy of homosexuals does not count because they are not freely surrendering the option of marriage or fatherhood, which was never in their grasp anyway. It is hard to know how to respond to such an assertion. Finally, Rome has decided that even those who "support the so-called 'gay culture'" must be turned away from ordination. Does this mean that anyone who believes "domestic partners" have rights, or who does not oppose civil unions, or who has a gay son or brother and his partner over for Christmas dinner cannot be ordained? How is Rome going to root out all these "gay sympathizers"? I entered the seminary 40 years ago this August and spent 27 years studying with and teaching more than 500 seminarians. The overwhelming majority of the seminaries open in 1966 are closed, and most of the remaining are a fraction of their former size. The "crisis" that closed seminaries and drove me and many friends from the priesthood had nothing to do with homosexuality, and the pedophilia crisis has little to do with homosexuals. Issuing Instructions and sending out investigators to ban and uncover gays will not solve the problem with brokeback seminaries – or a brokeback church. http://www.spokesmanreview.com/tools/story_pf.asp?ID=109678 |
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