It wasn’t sad enough that last week the grand jury issued its blistering report of the sexual abuse of children in the Philadelphia Archdiocese. It wasn’t sad enough that a cover up of the scandal involved the top members of the Philadelphia Church hierarchy at the time. It wasn’t sad enough that the statute of limitations prevents criminal prosecution of all those involved. It wasn’t sad enough that the lead attorney for the Philadelphia Archdiocese responded to the report by blaming the findings on anti-Catholic bigotry. It wasn’t even sad enough that Cardinal Justin Rigali mouthed words of apology while justifying the cover up as a "mistake" and cautioning parishioners to not read the report because "I don’t think it’s of value to families." As sad as all of this is, it’s going to get worse. Get ready for gays to be made the scapegoats.
According to the New York Times Sept. 21, the Vatican intends to prohibit gays from becoming new priests. While the pope has not yet signed the document, a church official indicated to the paper it expects it will become church law in about six weeks. Apparently the question is not whether the report will be published, but when.
As deeply offensive as the scandal cover up was, this response by the pope would be the most offensive of all. Understand what we have here. The rule would apply whether a gay person had been chaste or not.
The crucial factor for the Church will be the sexual orientation of the person seeking the priesthood, not his behavior.
The new Vatican law does not apply to priests who are already ordained, but it will certainly have a demoralizing effect on them, too. What happened to the Church’s own teaching that it loves the sinner, but not the sin? In this case, the "sin’ has become who that person is, not what he does.
In defending the proposed law, the same church official correctly points out the struggle gay men face living in a seminary. Let’s be clear — it would be entirely reasonable for the Church to refuse ordination to any seminarian who violated its precepts. But by barring gay men from entering the priesthood, the Vatican will in effect shame and deny those gay men who are already priests and living lives of celibacy.
What is the Vatican saying to these men? What is it saying to the openly gay priest who gave his life on 9/11 along with those brave New York firemen? All gay priests will be stigmatized by the Vatican. How could it be perceived any other way? In effect, we will go from a policy that protected the guilty to one that punishes the innocent.
There is something even more insidious about the timing of all this. The implementation of this new rule will be seen as the essential Vatican response to its pedophilia problem.
The pope will inadvertently feed the bigotry that gay men are pedophiles. The solution is a diversion worthy of Karl Rove — blame it on the gays.
The new document will apply to the Church worldwide. According to the report, Vatican investigators will be instructed to visit each of the 229 seminaries in the United States. So this is what the new pope meant when he spoke of the need to "purify" the Church after the sex abuse scandals.
Chaste gay men in the seminary will be faced with a choice — deny who you are or face ouster. With its acute priest shortage, the Vatican will make it even more difficult to attract new priests. One can only imagine what even the rumors of this new law are doing to the atmosphere inside seminaries across the world.
Uncle Nunzi has a solution. He wants confession reversed. According to Uncle, the Vatican should allow the faithful to hear confessions from the church hierarchy that deceived them. Uncle wants to give out the penance. The pope ought to proclaim gay priests who are serving their church with dignity be honored on that day. Vatican investigators will be used, not to persecute gay seminarians, but to follow up on abuse complaints from parishioners.
Oh, and Uncle has a word for Cardinal Rigali, too: Next time limit your apology to one mea culpa and a good act of contrition.
