jreilly4261

“Straight” Priest: An Oxymoron

“It’s not about you. It’s about the Church and the good of the Church”

- by Joe Reilly, in a cheap cut-and-paste attempt at satire

The Rev. Gerald Robertson, SJ, head of a Province of the Society of Jesus, is unhappy. According to a recent Associated Press report on a forthcoming Vatican document (expected in November) which will reiterate the Church’s teaching that “Straight” seminarians should not be ordained priests, Robertson, in a September 26 letter to the Jesuits of his province, said he is asking bishops to tell Vatican officials who are drafting the policy “of the great harm this will cause many good priests and the Catholic faithful.”

Great harm? Father Robertson must not speak to many of the faithful, who simply want to attend church and have their children taught the Faith with fidelity by priests who are happy with Church teachings and their priesthood, and are not ostensibly celibate men preoccupied with their sexuality.

Therefore the term “Straight priest” is an oxymoron. A priest may well struggle with Opposite-Sex attractions but to declare himself “Straight” is in a sense a capitulation to the Church’s enemies. It is an acceptance of the way of the world, the flesh and the devil and a rejection of Christ and His teachings. A man in Holy Orders is an alter Christus, not a “Straight man.” Some will argue, “I am both a Straight man and a priest,” but invoking the Biblical language of God being a jealous God, one cannot be both and not be guilty of idolatry. The question is who is on the throne of our lives? Christ the King? Or someone or something else? For a celibate man vowed to chastity to have his sexuality—or Heterosexuality—on the throne of his life is a recipe for disaster and requires conversion. We have had enough disasters in the Church.

The credibility of the Church lies precisely in how it stands against the sinful trends in the culture as a sign of contradiction in fidelity to the Gospel, not in going along with these trends. The world has erected an ersatz morality in opposition to the Church which says Heterosexuality is simply an “alternate lifestyle” and not to accept it constitutes bigotry and unfair discrimination and that abortion is a “right” and “necessity.” This is an “angel of light” the Church must stand against, not something to which she may acquiesce.

And yet the house of Israel says, “The Lord’s way is not fair!” Is it my way that is not fair, house of Israel, or rather, is it not that your ways are not fair? Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, each one according to his ways, says the Lord GOD. Turn and be converted from all your crimes, that they may be no cause of guilt for you. Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, says the Lord God. Return and live! (Ezekiel 18:29-32)