Knees are knocking ...

As the spin takes off and the denial revs up...

An apologist writes from Commonweal:

A witch-hunt mentality demonizes the vast majority of celibate gay men who are faithful to their vows, serve the church, and are as horrified as anyone at the abuses committed. The need to reject stereotypes and call out homophobia doesn’t mean that all discussion about homosexuality in the priesthood is off the table. As veteran Vatican observer Robert Mickens recently argued in the Washington Post, the closet is part of the problem:

There is no denying that homosexuality is a key component to the clergy sex abuse (and now sexual harassment) crisis. With such a high percentage of priests with a homosexual orientation, this should not be surprising. But let me be very clear: psychologically healthy gay men do not rape boys or force themselves on other men over whom they wield some measure of power or authority. However, we are not talking about men who are psychosexually mature. And yet the bishops and officials at the Vatican refuse to acknowledge this. Rather, they are perpetuating the problem, and even making it worse, with policies that actually punish seminarians and priests who seek to deal openly, honestly and healthily with their sexual orientation.

If the church removed all gay priests from ministry today, it would suffer for that loss. Nor would it bring an end to the abuse crisis. The problem is with those bishops, and others with influence in the church, who at best are asleep at the wheel and at worst willing to excuse predatory behavior. - Read the rest here.

Calling people homophobic is an ideological tactic to silence and shame those who are being honest about a homosexual problem in the Church.  It has been around since the beginnings of Dignity in the 1970's and the early development of strategies to equate the gay rights movement with the civil rights movement and women's liberation and so on.  It's a political term just as much as gay rights and gender equality is.  It's well documented in the literature, especially by Fr. Rueda in 'The Homosexual Network'.  I suggest rectors and pastors and bishops get a copy and read it.

Citing the homosexual problem in the clergy, as well as exposing bishops who have lived double lives and perpetuated a homosexual culture within seminaries and dioceses, does not in any way 'demonize' those celibate gay men who are faithful and are just as horrified as anyone about the abuses committed.  I'm not all that sure many of us are as 'horrified' by the sexual sins as we are by the corruption.

Churchmen and their spokesmen have to stop trying to distract us with  their political-ideological-pastoral-care-outreach formulae and address the very real problem of corruption.  It's gay Fathers - it's gay.  It's gay to call me homophobic for saying so.  Don't be gay.

In the light of such teaching, this Dicastery, in accord with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, believes it necessary to state clearly that the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called "gay culture".

- Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations