Gay priests? No, only fragile priests like many others

Letter published by Adista in december 2005

The publication in 2005 of the "Instruction" of the congregation of education on the exclusion of people with homosexual tendency by the priesthood has raised numerous controversies and reflections both in the Catholic Church and among the faithful. We report the text of a public letter, written by some gay priests, who express some rtesions on being a priest and homosexual in the Church today because while not being able to "deny our fragility, a condition of human nature: ... our situation is not an obstacle to being shepherds according to the heart of God".

Dear brothers and dear sisters in Christ,
the recent "education" of the congregation of education on the exclusion of people with homosexual tendency to the seminary and the priesthood pushes us to present some of our reflections in this regard. We are Catholic priests with homosexual, diocesan and religious tendency, and the fact of being such did not prevent us from being good priests.

Some of us have spent their lives on a mission, others are parish priests and shepherds of souls, loved estimated by their people, still others live their priesthood in teaching with great dedication and professionalism.
Our homosexual tendency, as the document would make it believe, was not an impediment to ensure that the life of the sacred minister is animated by the gift of all his person to the Church and by authentic pastoral charity.

Dear brothers and dear sisters in Christ, our homosexuality has never put us in a situation that seriously hinders a correct relating to men and women as the document says in paragraph 2!

As men and priests we feel seriously injured by this absolutely free statement! We have no greater problems than heterosexuals to live chastity because homosexuality is not synonymous with incontinence, nor of unstoppable instincts: we are not patients with sex and the homosexual tendency has not affected our psychic health, nor our moral and human qualities.

The document defines decisive for the candidate that any transitory homosexual tendencies are clarified and overcome for three years before the diaconal order. We would like to point out that most priests have experienced the seminar period as a very serene moment from a sexual point of view.

Confrontandoci tra di noi sacerdoti in varie occasioni ci siamo resi conto che i turbamenti, per gli eterosessuali come per gli omosessuali sono venuti dopo, causati non dalla tendenza sessuale, ma dalla solitudine, dalla mancanza di amicizia, dal sentirsi poco amati, e, qualche volta, abbandonati dai superiori o dalle loro comunità. Inoltre, per quanto ci riguarda moltissimi tra noi hanno preso coscienza della loro omosessualità solo dopo l’ordinazione.

La tendenza omosessuale non è assolutamente sinonimo di pedofilia e soltanto l’idea di essere talvolta scambiati per pedofili diventa per noi insopportabile!
Si ha pure un’altra impressione: che il mondo eterosessuale pensi agli omosessuali come necessariamente inseriti in una cultura gaia, esibizionista, pungente, fuori degli schemi, una filosofia di vita che spesso appare agli occhi di molti come contraria ad ogni regola morale, in cui tutto è permesso.

Certe manifestazioni del mondo gay così anticonformiste nascono come rivalsa da anni di ghetto e di persecuzione in cui è stato imprigionato il mondo omosessuale, ma sappiate che non tutto il mondo gay condivide tali manifestazioni. In ogni caso vorremmo assicurarvi che nessun di noi ha mai assunto atteggiamenti stravaganti né accetterebbe un permissivismo edonistico in cui non esistono leggi morali.

In the document it would seem that the greatest problem in order to be good priests both the sexual tendency, and then fly over certain lifestyles that although flawless from a sexual point of view create the true scandal between the faithful: we refer to luxury, to the attachment to money, to the hegemonies of power, to the distance from the problems of the people.

Dear brothers and dear sisters in Christ, we consider our homosexuality as a wealth, because it helps us to share the marginalization and suffering of many brothers and sisters; to paraphrase Saint Paul, we can do everything to everyone, weak with the weak, marginalized with the marginalized, homosexuals with gays.

The experience shows that our homosexual condition, if lived in the light of the Gospel, under the action of the spirit puts us in a position to support and support the brothers and sisters with homosexual tendencies on their path of faith, implementing the pastoral one that the Church recognizes as necessary and desirable.
That church that has received the Ministry of Reconciliation needs to reconcile with the gay world, of which many believers and many other children and daughters of God includes: men and women of good will who have the right to find in it the roof of their soul. The very very brothers and dear sisters in Christ, like all honest people we cannot deny our fragility, a condition of human nature: we bring the gift of God in the vases of Crete, An obstacle to being shepherds according to the heart of God.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Letter signed by 39 priests
(26 diocesans and 13 religious from all regions of italy)

To know more:

“Homosexual priests? The Catholic Church imposes "silence" without clarifying "
Article by Gianni Geraci taken from Pride, n.79 of January 2006

The text of the document on “Education about the criteria of vocational discernment regarding people with homosexual tendencies (external site)