BishopAccountability.org
	On Gay Men in the Priesthood Commitment, Not Orientation, Counts By Gerald D. Coleman San Francisco Chronicle [California] October 26, 2005 It is unprincipled to write about a document that is not yet released and whose content remains unknown. This has not hindered journalists, however, from speculating that a forthcoming Vatican document might ban homosexuals from seminary entrance and ordination. This conjecture has set off a wave of anger, disbelief, sadness, ridicule and "thank God, it's about time." My comments are aimed at these journalists. They are not meant to critique a policy that does not yet exist. Many argue that because 81 percent of clergy sexual abuse victims were boys and two-thirds of these were teenagers according to the John Jay College report released in 2004, ridding the Catholic Church of homosexual seminarians and priests would minimize or eliminate current and future clergy sexual abuse of minors. This belief has taken hold despite the accepted fact that sexual orientation by itself is not a risk factor for committing sexual crimes against minors. Persons who sexually violate children often sustain certain dysfunctions, such as pedophilia, personality disorders, brain injury and major depressive disorders, as well as issues relating to their own sexual victimization, their inability to maintain mature intimate relationships, their inability to cope with stress, struggles with substance abuse and other psychological factors. Some sexual abusers make a significant error in judgment by crossing sexual boundaries. To blame homosexuals for the clergy sexual abuse crisis is highly disturbing. We should know better. The apostolic visitations now under way in U.S. seminaries and houses of formation have led some journalists to accuse the church of gay bashing and witch-hunting. According to the New York Times, homosexual priests feel scapegoated for the clergy sexual-abuse crisis. One gay priest said, "I feel like a Jew in Berlin in the 1930s." Rumors of a document banning gay seminarians and priests inevitably create a negative and unjust judgment on a gay priest's vocation and his years of dedicated service. Wouldn't it make better sense to bar seminarians and priests who desire to or have sex with children? Restating the classic maxim that grace builds on nature, the 1992 document from Pope John Paul II, "I Will Give You Shepherds," insists that all priestly formation rests on four integrating pillars: human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral. The forthcoming U.S. Bishops' fifth edition of the Program of Priestly Formation underlines these dimensions and joins John Paul by insisting that the human dimension is foundational. The social, psychological, psychosexual, emotional and relational maturation of seminarians and priests lays the necessary foundation of everything else. These documents provide a viable context for strengthening a troubled priesthood. The seminary owes the church psychologically mature priests who aren't engaged in an ego-driven struggle with their own problems. In its 1986 letter on the pastoral care of homosexuals, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith provided a pivotal guideline: "Today the church refuses to consider the person as a 'heterosexual' or a 'homosexual' and insists that every person has a fundamental identity: a creature of God, and by grace, His child and heir to eternal life" (No. 16). The Catechism of the Catholic Church likewise admonishes that men and women with deep-seated homosexual tendencies "must be treated with respect, compassion and sensitivity," and with the hope of overcoming any possible pathology (No. 2358). Seminarians, priests and lay persons who are not secure in their sexual orientation remain in the image and likeness of God, but tarnish this image by inappropriate sexual behavior. This is why Vatican congregations have warned that a homosexual tendency can push one toward evil behavior. Distorted behavior results from a distorted tendency (No. 3). A careful analysis of Vatican instructions results in a sound pedagogy: A homosexual (or heterosexual) should not be admitted to a seminary or the priesthood who is unable or unwilling to live a secure psychosexual life. He must be free from sexual activity and, if homosexual, not allow homosexuality to be the defining principle of his life. I would agree with psychologists the Rev. Stephen Rossetti and Sister Donna Markham that extreme answers to the question of admission of homosexuals to the seminary and priesthood should be avoided: Either automatic exclusion or open inclusion as long as they have the capacity to live a celibate life. Careful and wise discernment distinguishes between a "secure" or "preoccupied" homosexual. Assessment aims at a sound judgment where an individual is capable of committing with integrity to a nongenital, nonpossessive, generous life of service in response to the Gospel. The Rev. Gerald D. Coleman was president/rector of St. Patrick's Seminary and University in Menlo Park from 1988-2004.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.