UNITED KINGDOM
The Telegraph
The scandal surrounding the resignation of Cardinal Keith O’Brien shows why the Catholic Church must end its hypocrisy over gays
By Peter Stanford
8:06PM GMT 25 Feb 2013
For us million or so run-of-the-mill Catholic Mass-goers in Britain, there have been plenty of bishops’ letters and other hellfire sermons about gay marriage to sit through of late. Since the argument from the pulpit is always the same, my mind often wanders and I find myself focusing instead not on the message but on the messenger.
As a “professional” Catholic – having once edited the Catholic Herald – as well as a private one, I’ve met many clerics. Many are openly gay. Or so open when not saying Mass that it is easy to forget I’m not meant to remember it when they are.
In general, such double standards don’t overly concern me. Like the rest of us, priests, monks, bishops and even cardinals are as God made them. Whatever inner tension they struggle with as leaders in a Church that teaches that to be gay is – and I am quoting a document sent out by the soon-to-retire Pope when he was Cardinal Ratzinger – “a strong tendency towards an intrinsic moral evil”, that is a matter for their own conscience.
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