New Vatican Rule Said to Bar Gays as New Priests

No surprise there. I'm only shocked that it took him this long to get it done.

A Houston lawyer plans to challenge the constitutionality of the U.S. diplomatic recognition of the Vatican as he pursues a lawsuit accusing Pope Benedict XVI of conspiring to cover up the molestation of three boys.

The challenge by attorney Daniel Shea is in response to a U.S. government filing recommending immunity for the pope, formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as a head of state.

"It's patently unconstitutional," Shea, whose client is known only as John Doe I, said Tuesday. "Joseph Ratzinger is not head of state. He's head of a church."

The filing in Houston federal court Tuesday by Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler states that it is in the interest of U.S. foreign policy that the pope have immunity. The government asks U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal to find that the pope is immune from the lawsuit under international law.

"The purpose of the suggestion of immunity is to cause the court to dismiss the case against Pope Benedict XVI," said Jeffrey Lena, a Berkeley, Calif., attorney representing the pope.

Shea said that accepting the claim of immunity creates "a conundrum for the church" because the pope has claimed he is the head of a church in earlier filings but now claims he is a head of state.

President Reagan formally recognized the Vatican in 1984 and sent an ambassador. Previous presidents have appointed personal representatives.

The lawsuit also names as defendants the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza, Monsignor William Pickard and former seminary student Juan Carlos Patino Arango.

The pope, who was still Cardinal Ratzinger when he was added to the lawsuit early this year, wrote a letter in 2001 calling for adherence to a 1962 guideline for dealing with allegations of sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy.

The lawsuit calls the guidelines "a virtual 'green light' for all bishops to actually facilitate, albeit secretly, the sexual exploitation of minors, and even brute animals, by clergy."

The lawsuit charges that Ratzinger's letter was part of a conspiracy that led to the molestation of three boys, listed in court documents as John Does I, II and III, 10 years ago by Patino Arango at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Houston.

Patino Arango fled to Colombia after being indicted by a Harris County grand jury.


By HARVEY RICE
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

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Yes, Jon. EXACTLY.

"As long as you are a good preacher, have a true calling, and obey the vows you have taken, I don't see why the world should be denied the benefits that could come from your work."

Ah, but if that's all there was to it, WOMEN could become priests too.

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Yes, Jon. The bar is called KNEEL, and it has private booths in the back so you can confess.

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Who will be left to say the mass and hear confession? While appearing to be a flip remark, this is an all-too-serious question.

This is one of those things that has not been thought all the way through. A wrong turn was made at the beginning of the rationale--that barring gay men from seminaries will increase the number of straight men who enter the priesthood. Allowing priests to marry and raise children will increase the number of seminarians.

Next to go will be current priests who are gay. Wait and see.

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So there will be no more Catholic priests?

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"The Catholic church will be decimated."
I don't think the Church itself will be decimated; the "Church" is you and me. The clergy ranks will be decimated - and that's an opportunity for the laity to take over. And THAT'S a good thing. The hierachy has screwed up this entity six ways to Sunday. The Church in the rural midwest is frequently ministered to by lay leadership because of an absence of area priests. In these parishes the "Church" is thriving.

That said, I have 5 close friends who are Jesuit priests. Four of the five are gay (though celibate). I feel great pain for them today as I read this report. It is time to rescue our spiritual heritage from the hands of an ignorant group of reactionaries.

"Although work on the document began years ago under Pope John Paul II, who died in April, its release will be a defining act in the young papacy of Benedict, a conservative who said last spring that there was a need to 'purify' the church after the deeply damaging sex scandals of the last several years."

The use of the word "purify" absolutely terrifies me.

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This should come as no surprise, since the Church defines homosexuality as "inherently disordered" that it, a mental illness. This is what the institutional Church teaches and believes, its what it tells students in their catechisms, and so why would any gay man want to be a priest? Why would he support this institutionalized homophobia, which being a priest and working for the Church, does?

BTW--I think Dolly is pretty close to correct--friends of mine who are ex-priests confirm that 70% number.

There IS a way to be a canonically correct noncelibate, married priest in the Catholic Church.

All you have to do is start in the Episcopal Church. :P

Taryn - You're absolutely right! I know two men in that state who are great assests to the church. (and so are their wives!)

Updated On: 9/22/05 at 01:03 PM