LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
CAMPTalk: Gay Catholics - Off Their Knees |
by Bill Sievert |
Were it not for gay priests, there might not be enough priests for the Roman Catholic Church to survive. That's something Church leaders ought to keep in mind as they debate whether to mount a witch-hunt to oust their homosexual clergymen. It's a ridiculous idea, but one that is being seriously bantered about by some Catholic hierarchy as a reaction to its sexual- abuse scandal. Ridding the priesthood of gay men would be akin to throwing out the babies with their baptismal water. Just ask former seminarian Rex Wockner, now a syndicated writer whose columns appear on PlanetOut.com. Wockner recalls in a recent article that, when he was studying to be a priest at the University of St. Mary on the Lake in Illinois in the early 1980s, at least half of his fellow seminarians were gay: "The straight students felt like a minority. They felt excluded from some aspects of life to such an extent that the administration staged a seminar at which we discussed the problem of the straight students feeling left out." With the U.S. Church already in crisis because of a drastic shortage of priests, Wockner writes, a decision to screen-out homosexuals would be "a near-final nail in the Church's coffin here." Father Donald Cozzens, author of The Changing Face of the Priesthood and pastoral psychologist at St. Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology in Cleveland, backs up Wockner's assertion. He believes that "the priesthood of the 21st century will likely be perceived as a predominantly gay profession." His research reveals that as many as half of American priests today are gay, and most of them are under 40 years old. What's more, he says, seminaries have become "significantly gay," as more heterosexual males decide not to become priests because of the celibacy requirement. (Cozzens estimates that more than 20,000 priests have resigned to get married in recent years, leaving only about 53,000 priests to serve the U.S. Church.) Wilton Gregory, head of the U.S. Conference of Bishops, referred to such statistics during the recent Vatican meeting about how to deal with its scandal. But, rather than suggesting a review of the Church's position on celibacy for all priests, Wilton blamed gay people for creating a "homosexual atmosphere" at seminaries that "makes heterosexual young men think twice" about joining the priesthood. Dignity, the 30-year-old organization for Gay Catholics with 80 chapters nationwide, has expressed outrage at several of Gregory's statements, including his comment that the Church is engaged in "a struggle" to make sure that the "priesthood is not dominated by homosexual men." Gregory suggested that gay applicants to seminaries be turned away in an effort to assure that "candidates are healthy in every way." His comments followed similar remarks by Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, who blamed the sexual-abuse scandal on gay priests, saying, "People with these inclinations just cannot be ordained." He even offered up the notion that ordinations of priests known to be homosexual might be annulled. Dignity/USA President Mary Louise Cervone calls such remarks "nothing more than a vicious and transparent attempt to shift the blame, in an effort to deny institutional culpability. This is about violence against children and abuse of power. It has nothing to do with sexual orientation." As NGLTF executive director Lorri L. Jean puts it, "It is well established that more than 95 percent of the perpetrators of child sexual abuse are heterosexual men. The system-wide cover-up by the Roman Catholic hierarchy is appalling, as are efforts to scapegoat homosexuality and gay priests." "We're not going to sit back and allow the Church to conduct a witch-hunt," adds Dignity's national executive director, Marianne Duddy. Gay priests have always "carried out the Church's work," she says. "They have visited the sick, comforted the dying, celebrated marriages and baptized children. Now, when the Church faces a crisis, its leaders are willing to sacrifice these good men." Dignity's national office is planning demonstrations at churches, cathedrals and diocesan offices all over the country. It is also working with such secular gay-rights advocacy groups as the NLGTF, GLAAD and the People for the American Way to mount a major public-relations offensive leading up to the meeting of the National Conference of Bishops in Dallas in June. At that gathering, American bishops will formulate policies for dealing with sexual abuse by their clergy, based on recommendations from last week's Vatican discussions. Another national gay Catholic group, New Ways Ministry based in Mount Rainier, Md., has announced plans to go directly to parishioners with a national educational campaign this summer. According to the group's director, Francis DeBernardo, its informational kits would include a resolution of support for parish priests regardless of their sexual orientation, sample prayers to celebrate the contributions of gay people to society, and model letters to write to bishops in support of gay priests and other gay/ lesbian church workers. "Lay people have to start taking more responsibility for Church governance and cannot allow the clerical culture to run the church," DeBernardo says. "The clerical culture is too steeped in silence and secrecy." Gay Catholics are beginning to stand up in greater numbers, and even a few priests are beginning to escape from their closets. When he was a parish priest in the Tampa, Florida area, Father Steve Rosczewski had to walk a straight and narrow line if he wanted to celebrate Mass for the members of Dignity, which is banned from Church premises by many American dioceses. "Like other priests in my situation, I was in a tight position and had to be careful," he says. "We could meet on Church property, but we couldn't mention Dignity. If we wanted to refer to Dignity, we'd have to find another place to meet." The "politics" finally got to him, and-after 12 years assigned to parishes-he resigned from his religious order last year, effectively barring him from performing priestly functions at diocesan churches. "It was a tough decision but I needed to be true to myself," he says. "And I wanted to celebrate my life with my partner." But, as he is quick to point out, once ordained, "a priest is always a priest." So, now Father Steve openly tends to the needs of his Dignity flock, saying Sunday Masses at a non-denominational Metropolitan Community Church in St. Petersburg. Father Steve is as outspoken about the current sex scandal as he is out of the closet. "To blame gay people is just another example of the Church's institutional bashing of the homosexual community," he says. "What we have to make understood is that there is a difference between healthy sexuality and unhealthy sexuality. Our position [within Dignity] is that it's OK to address the issues head-on. We've grown to hate silence. "Whatever the age, sex or orientation of the victim, we're not going to soft-peddle abuse," Father Steve is quick to point out. "But we've also got to force our Church to release its gay people from bondage." It's going to be a tough battle, he concedes. "Change in the Church always comes from the bottom up, not the top down. You know, in 12 years [assigned to] parishes, I never had a heterosexual couple confess to the sin of using artificial birth control. Most Catholics follow their consciences over Church laws." Which is why it's so important for all Catholics, gay and straight alike, as well as their friends of other creeds to stand up to the current assault. It's a simple matter of conscience. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 12, No. 05, May 17, 2002. |