Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski defended the Vatican’s new position on gay men serving in the priesthood. (Photo by Pier Paolo Cito/AP)
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Dec 02, 2005  |  By: ELIZABETH WEILL-GREENBERG  | COMMENTS |   |  

The long awaited Vatican document banning gay men and those who “support gay culture” from the priesthood was released this week, sparking outrage among some clergy and gay and lesbian rights groups.

For months, snippets of the document have been leaked to the media, generating speculation as to how sweeping the ban would be and whether it would officially have the pope’s support. But the final document was clear in its position on homosexuality.

The statement claims that gay men and lesbians are “objectively disordered” and the church “cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies, or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’”

The bishops, Episcopal Conferences and Superior Generals are charged with enforcing this ban. Spiritual directors, who have a sacrosanct relationship with their seminarians, according to theologian Mary Hunt, are ordered to discourage gays from seeking ordination.

Mark Jordan, a professor of religion at Emory University, noted that the seminary visits, which began in September, give the church a means of enforcing the ban. It is clear that the ban applies to gay men but it is more confusing as to what supporters of “gay culture” may mean, he said.

“It’s an attempt at mind control,” said Harry Knox, director of the religion and faith programs at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. “It’s an attempt to cut off debate about the issue. … It seeks to silence seminarians and priests who are coming to understand that gay people should be fully included in the lives of the church. It could apply to straight priests as well.”

The document also makes a somewhat puzzling distinction between “deep-seated homosexuals” and those with a “transitory problem.” Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski told Vatican radio that this would include experiences during adolescence or a homosexual encounter when drunk or if a person has been imprisoned, the Associated Press reported.

Closeted gays OK?
Bill Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League, told this newspaper that the ban only applies to gay priests who make their sexual orientation a central part of their identity, by participating in Gay Pride events, for instance.

The Vatican document also addresses the church’s child sex abuse problem, Donohue said.

“It’s a great myth that the Catholic Church suffers from a pedophilia crisis,” he said. “Most molesters have been gay.”

But many have criticized the ban as discriminatory and for creating a link between homosexuality and pedophilia, a connection that experts have repeatedly discredited.

“The document is really clear that this is supposed to be the response to the sex abuse scandal but really considered, it’s not,” Jordan said. “First, homosexuality is not pedophilia. Second, the scandal was not so much about pedophilia as it was about the abuse of church authority. I don’t see this document does anything to acknowledge or change the culture of church authority.”

Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, agreed that the document is blaming gay men for church leaders’ failures.

“I think the bishops are using this as a scapegoat for the sex abuse crisis,” Blaine said. “They’re pointing their fingers now at gay priests instead of pointing their fingers at themselves.”

While many Catholics disagree with the ban, it may not drive them away from the church because they have a “very local focus,” Jordan said.

“But priests don’t have that option,” Jordan said. “Priests are really caught in the middle.”

Hunt, a Catholic theologian, predicted the ban would create a type of “Catholic Stonewall,” in which Catholics will openly resist and criticize the ban. One priest from Mesa, Ariz., has already resigned from his church in protest. Rev. Leonard Walker told the Associated Press, “How could I, with any integrity, continue to serve when they take this kind of hostile and aggressive position?”

When Blaine was asked if the ban would make her leave the church, she replied, “It’s the Catholic leaders who have left the church, not me. I believe that my faith is in God, not in those leaders.”