by Matt Barr

Unintentional Sullivan comedy

Second header down here (emphasis supplied):

Where once homosexuality was a "condition" and the Church could speak of "homosexual persons," now there are merely "tendencies" and thr phrase "homosexual person" is not used. It says that homosexuality itself is a "problem in the psychic organization," i.e. a psychological disorder - despite the fact that no respectable psychological organization concurs. The spokesperson for the Pontifical Council for the Family goes further:

"One must free oneself from the idea that leads one to believe that, insofar as a homosexual person respects his commitment to continence lived in chastity, there will not be problems and he can therefore be ordained a priest... [A] commitment in holy orders presupposes that the candidate has attained a sufficient affective and sexual maturity coherent with his masculine sexual identity."

Dropping down to the third header:

Again, in the spokesman's words:

"[A priest] must, in principle, be suitable for marriage and able to exercise fatherhood over his children. And it is under those mature conditions that he renounces exercising them in order to give himself to God in the priesthood," the monsignor wrote. Msgr. Anatrella repeatedly affirmed the need for a priest to be heterosexual in order to see himself and for others to see him as the "bridegroom of the church" and as a "spiritual father" to those to whom he is ministering. "A homosexual person would have difficulty incarnating this symbolic reality of the spousal bond and spiritual paternity," he said.

Perhaps he meant "not used frequently," though from what he reproduces on his blog even that may be wrong.

Ok, Mr. Snarkypants, what do you think about the whole thing? Or are you just interested in making fun of Sullivan? Mostly the latter, but as a Catholic in a former life who to his regret is not welcome in the Church anymore, I say: Stupid Church! I'm a good person! Make your rules whatever they need to be so I feel welcome and included! No, no, I don't say that. I say that if the Pope thinks homosexual men are incompetent to be priests, that he knows quite an awful lot more than I do about the subject. I mean, by miles. Sort of a spiritual Chevron deference.

Beyond that, of course it's troubling when a class of people is excluded from something without a good reason; when I say I defer to the Pope, it doesn't mean I'd make the same decision. If I would make the same decision, I'd say that instead, and explain why. But I do observe that people my size are regarded as incompetent to be firefighters (unless I grow ovaries, I suppose), but even though I or someone my size with more fortitude and upper body strength would make an excellent fireman, I'm not going to act like that rule portrays me as less of a person. Except insofar as it does literally.

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