Gay Priests

Okay, this may come as a shock to some people, but there are gay Catholic priests. And for a long time, the church has accepted celibate gays as priests--the rules for celibacy apply to both gay and straight priests. And gay priests serve their people well, or not so well, regardless of their sexuality.

That being said, the policy initiative rumored to be making its way through the Vatican--the banning of gay priests from the ranks makes me so angry I could spit.

Because:

BEING GAY DOES NOT MAKE YOU A PEDOPHILE!!!

If the church really wants to put a stop to pedophila, it needs to make sure that PEDOPHILIA is not tolerated. They could throw out all the straight priests, or all the ones with brown hair, and it still would not address the real issue, which is: the hierarchy that let these guys get away with PEDOPHILIA all those years were protecting priests, not parishioners.

In this article from Slate, the writer suggests putting an end to "careerism," which he believes motivates some bishops to hide problems like pedophiliac priests, rather than to deal with them. That could be part of the solution.

But I think the sad truth is that smart abusers almost always choose victims that people probably won't believe. All churches, and indeed all organizations that are entrusted with children, must recognize this and take steps to plan for it.

But re-closeting or throwing out the gay priests is worse than useless. It perpetuates ignorance, and makes life worse for gays everywhere.

/end rant