To Ordain Homosexuals, Unfair to Them

Bishop D'Arcy reiterates something he has said in his diocese back home in Boston...



From Boston.com / News / Local / Mass. / Bishop urges gay ban in clergy:



"''We must be very careful of who we accept in the seminary and who we ordain as priests,' D'Arcy told parishioners at Our Lady of the Presentation Church, the Brighton parish in which he grew up. ''It's time to ordain men of quality, not to just look for numbers.'



During yesterday's 10 a.m. Mass, D'Arcy, now bishop of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese in Indiana, said the church must look for men whom children can respect -- ''men who would be good husbands, men who would be good fathers,' he said.



In an interview after the service, D'Arcy acknowledged that his reference to ''good husbands . . . good fathers' conveyed his belief that only heterosexual men should be allowed to become priests. He said men in the priesthood must embrace celibacy.



To put a gay man in the priesthood, in a mostly male environment, is unfair, given the potential attractions, D'Arcy said. ''We don't put these [heterosexual] men in with attractive women,' he said, referring to seminarians. ''You're putting him in with men. It's not fair to him, it's not fair to them, it's not fair to the church.'"