Persecution?

I would like to turn this conversation once more to how one identifies themselves. If I ask a celibate his or her sexual orientation I expect them to say celibate not gay or heterosexual. St. Paul takes this a step further, saying that all of us should remember that we are Christ's and what we were before Christ was not who we really are...

The passage is well known and it deals with all of us not just one group:

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts,
nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

People who still identify themselves in one way perhaps haven't converted to Christianity (a problem that exists among Catholics who don't always see the connection between their faith and Jesus), no persectution---just truth in advertising as Amy said in her NY Times piece.

From Gay Men Ponder Impact of Proposal by Vatican - New York Times:

Gay priests say they are being scapegoated for crimes committed by pedophiles
and covered up by bishops who never faced any discipline. The interviews made
clear that they now had the strong sense of being persecuted by their own
church.

'I feel like a Jew in Berlin in the 1930's,' said a 48-year-old
gay priest who has spent 18 years in a religious order. He said he was
considering donning a pink triangle - the symbol used by the Nazis - and getting
heterosexual priests and members of the laity to wear the triangles as a
protest.

First Seminary Investigation Begins

At Aquinas in St. Louis...

I am familiar with the Rector/President, had him at a class at the Aquinas Institute (same place) in St. Louis back in the early 90's. They used to brag about one of their nuns having an MDiv so that when the ban on women's ordination was lifted she would be ready to go...gives you an idea of where they are coming from... not surprising to hear his comments.

From STLtoday - News - St. Louis City / County:

The 25 candidates studying to become priests at Aquinas Institute of Theology
were described as 'anxious' but not worried Monday as a Vatican team began
evaluating how they are prepared intellectually, spiritually and sexually for
priesthood.

And an op-ed in the St. Louis Dispatch by the President Rector:

Priests are not sexless.

Priestly celibacy is a free choice to forgo sex and marriage for the sake of ministry. Like marriage, celibacy can be difficult, even burdensome. Those of us who have chosen it do so because we believe it is the best way for us to achieve our life's purpose. The goal is not to suppress sexuality but to shape it into a truly creative force in the service of others. Priests are loving, caring, feeling and, yes, even desiring, human persons. We wouldn't want it any other way.

Homosexuality and pedophilia are not the same.

Homosexuality involves attraction to adult persons of the same sex and is not in itself sinful or sick. There is no evidence that a homosexual orientation, in and of itself, prevents a seminarian from achieving the same holiness and ministerial effectiveness as a seminarian with a heterosexual orientation.

On the other hand, a pedophile has no interest in adult sexual relationships and is attracted only to children.

Most victims of pedophilia are girls, and most molesters are male family members. Pedophilia is a serious pathology that is resistant to therapy. It is found in every social class, within every racial and ethnic group and in every profession. There is no evidence that pedophilia is more prevalent among priests than in society at large.

William F. Buckley Jr. on Monsignor Clark

At William F. Buckley Jr. on Monsignor Clark on National Review Online

Amy in the New York Times

Well done, of course...



New York Times Op-Ed The Sins of the Seminaries

No Publication Date for Seminarian Document

According to National Catholic Reporter quoting Vatican "officials".

Feast of St. Pio of Pietrelcina

Padre Pio...

From the Canonization Homily by Pope John Paul II:

"But may I never boast except in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal 6,14).

Is it not, precisely, the "glory of the Cross" that shines above all in Padre Pio? How timely is the spirituality of the Cross lived by the humble Capuchin of Pietrelcina. Our time needs to rediscover the value of the Cross in order to open the heart to hope.

Throughout his life, he always sought greater conformity with the Crucified, since he was very conscious of having been called to collaborate in a special way in the work of redemption. His holiness cannot be understood without this constant reference to the Cross.

In God's plan, the Cross constitutes the true instrument of salvation for the whole of humanity and the way clearly offered by the Lord to those who wish to follow him (cf. Mk 16,24). The Holy Franciscan of the Gargano understood this well, when on the Feast of the Assumption in 1914, he wrote: "In order to succeed in reaching our ultimate end we must follow the divine Head, who does not wish to lead the chosen soul on any way other than the one he followed; by that, I say, of abnegation and the Cross" (Epistolario II, p. 155).

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