Fr. Z's Blog

It took a while.  They probably needed to get the ringing in their ears to stop after being gobsmacked.

The National Sodomitical Reporter (aka Fishwrap) hardly loses any opportunity to defend that which is contrary to nature.

However, Fishwrap is also mired in the incontinent papalotry which has seized the Left.

So, Francis states clearly that homosexuals are not to be admitted to the priesthood.  What on earth are they to do?!?

In this case, their allegiance to sodomy has trumped their other loyalties.

Case in point at Fishwrap, the meanderings of their lesbian authoress Jamie Manson, wholly committed to the cause, to the point that she takes it to Francis.

So, what are ‘deep-seated homosexual tendencies’ anyway?

The pope who once famously said about gay priests, “Who am I to judge?”, is judging again.

In a newly published, book-length interview, Pope Francis has reasserted his worries about the presence of gay men in the clergy and of gays and lesbians in consecrated life.

His statement is a response to this question, posed by the interviewer, Claretian Fr. Fernando Prado: “It is not a secret that in consecrated life and in the clergy there are also people with homosexual tendencies. What can you say about that?”

Francis offers a response that is rather meandering, and even muddled in some parts. He claims that homosexuality is “fashionable” in some societies and that this “mentality also influences the life of the Church.”

[…]

What is really interesting, is that she doesn’t cut Francis any slack.  And she even takes it to fellow lefties for trying to reinterpret what he said until it doesn’t mean what it meant (a common tactic on that side).

“For this reason,” Francis says, “the Church recommends that people with this deep-seated tendency not be accepted into ministry or into consecrated life. Their place is not in ministry or in consecrated life.”

A number of progressive Catholics have rushed to Francis’ defense. Some argue that he is only opposed to priests and religious who break their vows of celibacy. Others insist that he did not include heterosexuals in his condemnation of celibacy-breakers because the interviewer’s question was specifically about gay priests and gay and lesbian religious.

But to apologize for Francis in these ways is to deny what he has said previously about homosexuality and about admitting gay men to the priesthood.

An example, is found also at Fishwrap.  Jesuit Thomas Reese with ultra-liberal RNS said… get this…

Others interpreted “deep-seated” as something akin to “uncontrollable” and therefore incapable of observing celibacy. In this interpretation, “deep-seated heterosexuality” would also be a problem. If the tendency was not “deep-seated,” if he could live a celibate life, then the man could enter the seminary and become a priest.

I guess you can be… what?… too heterosexual?  Yes, ladies and gentleman, Jesuits!

Back to task at hand.  Jamie goes on to deconstruct the phrase “deep-seated homosexual tendencies”, which the CCE’s 2005 used in their document on the homosexuals in seminaries and the priesthood (hint = no!).   She slides deeper and deeper into word salad.

In the end, she turns on Francis.

Regardless of his motivations, Francis’ characterizations of gays and lesbians and his notion of “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” will only foster the toxic homophobic attitudes that are already so prevalent in seminaries and religious communities, as well as in the wider church. In his attempt to discuss “the strength of a vocation,” he has only weakened what little hope LGBTQ Catholics still have for his pontificate.

In general, with Fishwrap and their papalotrous allies, there is hardly anything that Francis could cook up that they wouldn’t obstinately applaud.  Were Francis to stand at the beach and command that the tide not roll in, they would alternate between begging him to keep trying and attestations that the spiritually, at least, tide had ceased its progress at his behest.  They might out-Mottram Mottram.

Poor Fishwrap.

Francis said, in his interview book, “the Church recommends that people with this deep-seated tendency not be accepted into ministry or into consecrated life. Their place is not in ministry or in consecrated life.”  Back in May he told Italian bishops, “If you have even the slightest doubt, it is better not to let them in.”

Poor, poor readers of Fishwrap.

Here is a does of clarity.

As the late Bp. Morlino explained, if a man is attracted to men rather than women, then he is not attracted to marriage.  If he is not attracted to marriage, then giving up marriage  isn’t a sacrifice.  If he is celibate, unmarried, even if there is abstinence in body, the homosexual’s attitude of mind and heart cannot be, “I’m sacrificing marriage and it hurts!”  Moreover, I’ll add, the spousal relationship of the priest and the Church is deeply compromised when the man has these disordered attractions.

There.