WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
Dianne Williamson
dwilliamson@telegram.com
T&G STAFF
He left the priesthood despite a successful ministry because he felt “emasculated” and “like a kid living in my parent’s house,” he said. Now, he wonders how gay priests — his friends and former colleagues — will manage to survive in a church that may be poised to purge their ranks and blame them for the sins of others.
“How do you give your life to an organization that’s bashing you?” wondered this former local priest, now living as an openly gay man. “It’s almost evil at work. They’re using gay men as scapegoats, and I find it sinful.”
It should come as no surprise, really, because gays get blamed for everything — terrorist attacks, hurricanes, even the re-election of George W. Bush. So why shouldn’t gay priests take the heat for the child sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church? Do we really expect an institution as intractable as the Vatican to engage in a painful and honest review of the policies that contributed to such a corrosive atmosphere?
Instead, according to a document obtained by The New York Times, investigators appointed by the Vatican have been instructed to review more than 220 Roman Catholic seminaries in the United States for “evidence of homosexuality” and for faculty dissent from church teachings. The document surfaces as the Vatican prepares to rule on whether gay men should be barred from the priesthood. The reviews were ordered by Rome in April 2002, at the height of the clergy sexual-abuse crisis.
One can’t help but wonder what sort of “evidence” these investigators will search for. A cacophony of show tunes blaring from seminary dorm rooms? Old ticket stubs to Cher concerts? Eye-catching interior design in the common rooms? Televisions tuned to the LOGO channel?
The irony, of course, is that an institution that claims to promote equality and denounce bigotry is now judging men not on what they do, but solely on who they are. Archbishop Edwin O’Brien, who is spearheading the seminary review, recently said that “anyone who has strong homosexual inclinations” should not be admitted to a seminary. And he also told TheAbuse Tracker Catholic Register that the restriction should apply even to those who have been celibate for more than a decade.
This is because the church is conveniently equating homosexual orientation with pedophilia, even though most experts in human sexuality agree there’s no link between homosexuality and child sexual abuse. Rather, different theories abound that the scandal could have been caused by mandatory celibacy, by the fact that priests have more access to male targets, or because of a dysfunctional system that attracts and produces psychologically immature men.
Now, though, the Vatican has muddled its own celibacy requirement and maintained that it’s no longer enough — that only men who want to have sex with women and don’t act on it are worthy of the priesthood. And it’s threatening the church’s very existence, because a large number of Catholic priests happen to be gay. Estimates vary widely, but I’d guess that many people who grew up Catholic would place the number, anecdotally, as high as 40 or even 50 percent.
Rather than deal openly with the issue, however, this latest inquisition will serve only to silence gay priests and drive them deeper underground. This will leave them helpless to counter the negative stereotypes of gay priests, and will insure that positive examples continue to remain hidden.
“This whole thing is scary,” said the former local priest, of the review he dubbed a witch hunt. “It wasn’t gay priests who caused the scandal. It was the neglect of bishops who chose to ignore what was going on, and who gave guys like John Geoghan the license to run rampant. There have always been gays in the priesthood, and my closet gay priest friends are celibate and embrace their calling as a priest.”
He left the priesthood after seven years, at the brink of a scandal that has led to more than 11,000 abuse claims in the past five decades. And he acknowledged that maintaining celibacy is a struggle for gay priests — just as it is for straight priests.
“Do people mess up? Yeah, sometimes,” he said. “But a lot of these guys have had wonderful careers. They’ve been very successful in their ministry and have brought no shame or embarrassment to the church. Now the church is turning on its own. Rome eats its young.”
The church doesn’t see it that way, of course, and implies that gay men can’t be expected to be celibate regardless of their record, and that all are potential molesters of children. This, from a church that fights injustice and claims to welcome everyone to God’s table; this, from an institution that has flourished for centuries with the help of countless devout and dedicated priests who happen to be gay.
“If there have been past failings, the church really must stay on the safe side,” Archbishop O’Brien said recently. “The same-sex attractions have gotten us into some legal problems.”
Legal problems? Please, please tell me that the archbishop isn’t referring to the systemic abuse of innocent young children as a legal problem. Because if that’s the case, it’s just another sad indication that a church now seeking a scapegoat instead of self-examination has failed to learn a thing from its past mistakes.
Contact Dianne Williamson by e-mail at dwilliamson@telegram.com.