Area LGBT Catholic groups have responded to a Vatican document that restricts the presence of gays in the priesthood.
The controversial document, which bars gays from entering the Catholic priesthood, was finally released Nov. 29. The short document, unsurprisingly, has already been praised by conservatives and condemned by liberals.
Ramon Rodriguez, president of Dignity Chicago, e-mailed Windy City Times with a statement. He declared that the organization is 'deeply disturbed by the Vatican's insistence on blaming gay men for its own abuses. Besides discouraging emotionally healthy gay men from entering the seminary, this policy actually encourages unhealthy and closeted men' to enter the priesthood.
In addition, Rodriguez stated that ' [ i ] nstead of persecuting homosexuality, seminary admissions should seek out sexually mature men of all sexual orientations who are willing to commit to a celibate lifestyle.'
The Rainbow Sash Movement, another LGBT Catholic organization, also has made its opinion known about the document. In a statement on its Web site, Joe Murray, the U.S. convener of the movement, said that the edict is the latest in a slew of anti-gay actions by the Vatican. 'The Holy Roman Catholic Church has been waging a public war against gay people for too many years,' Murray said in a strongly worded message. 'Now these bishops would have you believe they are cleaning house by screening out priests and seminarians with gay orientations. This is another deliberate sham. Keeping out gay seminarians will do nothing to rid the Church of pedophiles, for whom gender of the victim is not very important. Instead of understanding pedophilia, it is easier and cheaper to attack the most vulnerable: gay seminarians.'
Murray also urged the Catholic Church to halt its attack upon the gay community. '... God made us this way, just as He made straight people straight. We celebrate our diversity and urge the Church to throw off its rigid, mistaken thinking on this issue. If the bishops are to exert any moral authority in the 21st Century, they must stop attacking groups of people whose similarities are far greater than the differences,' he stated.