Friday, September 23, 2005
No new gay priests (but you can stay, Your Eminence)
The Vatican is worried over "intrinsically disordered" celibate gays being tempted in the seminary shower room, or perhaps later in the church robing closet. Concerns have been expressed about seminarians who don't yet realize they are gay. So, no more priests who have, had, might have or are rumored to exhibit homo tendencies. I'm just a protestant, but I'd rather accept the priests who might have sex with each other & kick out the ones who want sex with children. As for celibacy, no one is suggesting that some priest candidates are insecure heterosexual men resigned at a young age to never getting laid much less married, so they choose a secure career that provides a home, a car, health, vacation & retirement benefits, & the diverse responsibilities of managing a community business called a "parish." These men may not be aware that becoming a priest actually increases their chances of getting it on with a female. That's the situation in which many now-married priests found themselves, & it took them out of the vocation for which they had vowed chastity, poverty, & obedience & into domesticated life they'd earlier rejected.
I knew very well a Catholic woman who was let's say unusually impressed by the priestly collar. Her deeper fantasies alternated between tall, intellectual Jesuits & randy pirates. If they could play tenor sax, all the better. There's still women like her in the pews, raised strictly to respect priests as fatherly authority figures - stronger authorities in important ways than their own fathers, who deferred to priests & needed the sacramental powers that were dispensed by this higher order of men in black. When these women are intelligent & educated, it's easy to understand why priests fall in love with & marry them. (A good argument for allowing married priests.)
The Roman Church has determined that the best way to restore itself is by pushing the rewind button. It's quite interesting to watch the movie Boys Town (1938), particularly the peculiar character of Dave Morris, pawnbroker pal of Father Flanagan. Now, if they can only find Father "Chuck" O'Malley. Better fey than gay?
Meet a real priest who was both gay & celibate, & a very great person who even after his death continues to prove that love unifies.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
I knew very well a Catholic woman who was let's say unusually impressed by the priestly collar. Her deeper fantasies alternated between tall, intellectual Jesuits & randy pirates. If they could play tenor sax, all the better. There's still women like her in the pews, raised strictly to respect priests as fatherly authority figures - stronger authorities in important ways than their own fathers, who deferred to priests & needed the sacramental powers that were dispensed by this higher order of men in black. When these women are intelligent & educated, it's easy to understand why priests fall in love with & marry them. (A good argument for allowing married priests.)
The Roman Church has determined that the best way to restore itself is by pushing the rewind button. It's quite interesting to watch the movie Boys Town (1938), particularly the peculiar character of Dave Morris, pawnbroker pal of Father Flanagan. Now, if they can only find Father "Chuck" O'Malley. Better fey than gay?
Meet a real priest who was both gay & celibate, & a very great person who even after his death continues to prove that love unifies.
