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	Local Catholics Rebut Vatican's Gay Policy Critics Say Stance against Homosexuality Could Create Morale Problems in Seminaries By Angela Hill Oakland Tribune [Oakland CA] December 1, 2005 OAKLAND — If a potential Roman Catholic priest is free from the sins of the flesh, it should not matter if the man is gay or straight, several East Bay Catholics said Wednesday in response to the Vatican's latest policy declaration on gays in the priesthood. "It's a superfluous comment," said Cecilia McKee, 38, of Berkeley, referring to Tuesday's official statement from the Vatican that the church "cannot admit to the seminary ... those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called 'gay culture.'" "In my mind, priests are asexual anyway," she said. "You can't be gay, but you also can't be heterosexual. You're not supposed to be having sex. So it doesn't matter which way your desires go. The point is whether or not you act on them." "It's clearly the church's knee-jerk reaction to the millions of dollars they've had to spend on pedophile priests, and all the years they hid those people and moved them from parish to parish," said Robert Saletta, a devout Catholic who works in Berkeley and attends Mass inSan Francisco. "I'm not surprised by the statement," he said. "The trouble is that it goes back to implying that all gay men are pedophiles. The whole thing really hinges on whether you're celibate or not. Not whether you're gay or straight." The announcement, the first major policy statement of Pope Benedict XVI's papacy, has brought praise from conservative Catholics who have said it may help eliminate the "gay culture" of many U.S. seminaries. But critics say it will create morale problems within the clergy. Church officials say the directive was not meant to police currently ordained priests, but seminary candidates. And it does not apply if men had "transitory problems" with such tendencies, according to the Vatican, and have overcome these for three years. "I think the reason the church released this is that the topic of homosexuality is very big in society today," said the Rev. Mark Wiesner of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland. "And for better or for worse, I think the church is trying to engage society in a conversation, and to clarify (the church's) position." Wiesner agreed that the same criterion could be applied to heterosexual men. "If they have a strong sexual desire, then maybe ordination in the Catholic church is not for them," Wiesner said. "What the church is really asking spiritual directors to do is to help seminarians look at the issue and help them decide whether or not this is the right path for them. "It's an issue of integrity, whether or not they are following what the church teaches. And it's not so much an effort to police, but to make sure men seriously consider this."
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