Expect more of this sort of Tolerance Persecution in the very near future:
Two gay seniors who said they felt alienated by the [GWU] Newman Center's
controversial priest will launch a campaign this week to force him off
campus.
At least a dozen students, including seniors Damian Legacy and Blake
Bergen, say they have left the Newman Center in the last several years
because Father Greg Shaffer’s strong anti-gay and anti-abortion views
are too polarizing. Shaffer, a Roman Catholic priest, has spent five
years preaching to GW students.
The line of attack will be something like this: RC dogma is divisive, polarizing, and alienating to those who must suffer under the Church's disapproving gaze. Since we are a tolerant community that welcomes diversity, the Church must be silenced so that we can all feel comfortable with who we choose to be. No one should be allowed to think, speak, or act in any way that makes anyone uncomfortable. . .except, of course, it's OK for us to make RC's uncomfortable b/c they disagree with us. . .b/c they're all bigots, or something.
And pay special attention to this bit of the story:
And while Legacy said he is now more comfortable with both his sexuality
and his religion, and has since become an ordained priest in the Old
Catholic Church in October, he said he doesn’t want anyone else seeking
Shaffer’s counseling to feel that same torment.
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What exactly is "the Old Catholic Church"?
ReplyDeleteI also thought open homosexuals were now denied the priesthood. This is what got the Church in trouble in the recent past when we opened the doors to homosexuals joining the priesthood which has lead to the scandal of "pedophilia" in the Church.
Is the Church still allowing open homosexuals to join the priesthood?
Old Catholics broke with Rome after VC1 over papal infallibility.
DeleteYour second question is hard to answer b/c it's truly difficult to know what constitutes a homosexual for the purposes of excluding them from the priesthood. My understanding is that the Church is not suppose to train/ordain men who have lived as sexually active homosexuals, or those who are "so homosexual" that they cannot live chastely. There's no blood test to identify a person's sexuality, so we're left with trusting that a man will be honest with the vocation director. What about men who have lived sexually active homosexual lives and then left this life and have lived chastely for years? Or priests who bear up under SSA chastely? Like I said. . .difficult.
Wouldn't a priest with a preconciliar mindset, be more "orthodox", according to them, on Church teaching? It seems like he is really not part of the "Old" church when it comes to ideals.
ReplyDeleteI understand there is no blood test for identifying SSA or worse (which points to the fact that it is not genetic) but it seems that when a person identifies themselves as a "gay" person or a "homosexual", they fail to see themselves simply as a child of God with unnatural tendencies. So, if a man that is entering the seminary says he is an open homosexual, then he identifies himself with the sin and not as a man with weaknesses. If a person that simply has SSA and deals with it accordingly, then they are not a homosexual. One that calls them self a homosexual admits to an active lifestyle, whether it be in physical acts or lust in the heart. You don't see many people that have committed adultery running around calling themselves adulterers unless they were in an active relationship outside their marriage, and even then they would not be so bold to make it public. The same applies to homosexuals, they are not homosexuals unless they have given themselves over to their SSA.
If the seminary has not made know his condition to the vocation director, then I agree, there is little to be done. This leads to a different question. If one "marries" while withholding a certain bit of info that important from the other, then that "marriage" will likely be annulled. So can the ordination of a priest that has been dishonest or purposely withheld something render his ordination invalid. I don't think this is the case but it is worth asking.
God bless,
Michael
Michael, I'm about as good a canon lawyer as I am a singer. . .my guess: an ordination would be annulled if the candidate failed to disclose a canonical impediment before ordination. However, being SSA is not a canonical impediment. For example, all candidates for ordination are vetted by the vocations director before entering seminary/formation. One question asked: have you ever committed murder, facilitated an abortion, or participated in an state execution? If you say, "yes," then you and the VD would have to celebrate the sacrament of confession and go from there. If you lie and say, "no," and it is later discovered that you lied, your ordination would be void.
DeleteNow. . .I am NOT a canon lawyer. And if I've written anything incorrect here, I hope someone would correct me.
Fr. Powell,
ReplyDeleteI just realized I was thinking of Vatican II rather then Vatican I when you spoke of the "old" catholic church.
Thanks for answering my other question.
God bless,
Michael
There are some "Old Catholic" groups that come by their Vatican I-era schism honestly. There are others that are more on the make-believe side of things, who treat apostolic succession through a validly consecrated (but wildly imprudent) bishop as an excuse to pretend any fool ideas they have is Catholic doctrine.
ReplyDeleteYou can decide for yourself where an ecclesial group that would ordain an unchaste gay college student two years removed from being a practicing Roman Catholic falls.