Resource Library on Celibacy/Sexuality in the Priesthood

Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin,  it is a more or less strong tendency toward an intrinsic moral evil;  and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder."

CDF Letter, no.3

• Married Priests Not Seen as a Solution
  Zenit August 16, 2007
  "If we only see a vocation from the individuals point of view, we will find it hard to see beyond the thought that priests and religious are missing out on something if they are not married. John Paul II reminded us that No one is called to walk alone."
  
• Sex offender's request to join proves to be tempest for church
  Sandi Dolbee, UNION-TRIBUNE March 25, 2007
  “I believe everybody needs an opportunity to recover, and part of that recovery is living in the real world,” Woodend said. “But I believe that the church should be smart about having safety measures in place.” The key, the experts say, is finding a balance between safety and inclusion – and incorporating that with detailed agreements and accountability procedures.
  
• Pornography Plague
  Father John Flynn, Zenit December 10, 2006
  ...pornography violates chastity because it introduces impure thoughts into the viewers mind and often leads to unchaste acts, such as masturbation or adultery. It is also an offense against justice. This is so because of the grave injury to the dignity of its participants, each one of whom becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. "Everyone involved in the production, distribution, sale, and use of pornography cooperates and, to some degree, makes possible this debasement of others," Bishop Loverde warned.
  
• Breaking the Shackles of Pornography Addiction
  Bishop Victor Galeone December 07, 2006
  In short, easy access, anonymity and affordability have made Internet porn more popular and seemingly less dangerous than previous means of sexual experimentation. I stress "seemingly" because the reality is far otherwise.
  
• Pastoral Care for Those With Same-Sex Attraction Interview With Father John Harvey of Courage
  Zenit December 07, 2006
  The document is a definite improvement from the 1997 document "Always Our Children: A Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children and Suggestions for Pastoral Ministers." That document was written in a way that it could be assumed that there are two orientations: heterosexual and homosexual. The fact of the matter is that there is only one orientation, the heterosexual orientation. The homosexual tendency is an objective disorder, and if a person has this objective disorder, it is because other things have happened.
  
• Grave questions about bishops' child-abuse prevention
  Mary Jo Anderson, WorldNetDaily.com November 01, 2006
  At the 75th annual meeting of the Catholic Medical Associations Education Conference, held in Boston October 27-28, professionals recommended the U.S. bishops "rescind the safe-environment mandate as it applies to children and adolescents and discontinue all child-empowerment programs for preventing child sexual abuse."
  
• Filling the Psychological Void With Charity
  Zenit Interview with Jesslyn McManus September 09, 2006
  In recent years, forgiveness has come to be seen by many as an effective means to bring about psychological healing to those who are suffering from the effects of an injustice. Anger, whether outwardly expressed or defensively denied, is a reoccurring theme in psychotherapy.
  
• Spitzer Study Published:Evidence Found for Effectiveness of Reorientation Therapy
  Roy Waller and Linda A. Nicolosi March 03, 2006
  Spitzers findings challenge the widely-held assumption that a homosexual orientation is "who one is" -- an intrinsic part of a persons identity that can never be changed. The study has attracted particularly attention because its author, a prominent , is viewed as a historic champion of gay activism. Spitzer played a pivotal role in 1973 in removing homosexuality from the psychiatric manual of mental disorders.
  
• Homosexuality & Catholic Doctrine
  Most Reverend Fabian Bruskewitz February 21, 2006
  The number of men and women who have deep seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill Gods will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lords Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
  
• Gays and the Priesthood
  Richard John Neuhaus February 20, 2006
  The teaching is that homosexual desires are objectively disordered and homosexual acts are intrinsically immoral. This is joined to a call to respect and extend pastoral care to those who are burdened by same-sex desire, helping them to respond, along with sinners of every kind, to the “universal call to holiness.”
  
• Brokeback Syndrome — More Than One Way Off the Mountain
  WARREN THROCKMORTON February 20, 2006
  His pursuit of that option came through various counselors, religious commitment and eventually involved an Exodus International ministry. He told me recently in an interview that he has not had a homosexual experience in 10 years and says, "I am no longer attracted to men at all."
  
• Homosexuality and the Seminaries: How to Read the New Vatican Instruction
  Rev. Robert J. Johansen, Crisis Magazine February 01, 2006
  Apart from the variety of reactions to the document, its release offers a good opportunity to consider the issues of seminary formation regarding celibacy and homosexuality. What does this Vatican document really mean? Is there currently a substantial homosexual subculture within American seminaries? And will the provisions of the instruction be implemented?
  
• REFLECTIONS ON THE INSTRUCTION ON THE ADMITTANCE OF HOMOSEXUALS INTO SEMINARIES
  Mons. Tony Anatrella, Psychoanalysist and expert in Social Psychiatry, Catholic News Service December 15, 2005
  This document was demanded in many ad limina visits by bishops from all over the world, from vocations directors and seminaries who are facing the problem of homosexuality brought in by candidates to the deaconate and priesthood and with the behavior that derive from some priests. Nevertheless, it seemed necessary reminding that homosexuality always made it difficult, with many other reasons, that prevent the access to the sacred Orders.
  
• Living In Truth: Eleven Church Teachings on Homosexuality
  Courage December 07, 2005
  You Need to Know What the Church Teaches... this article will quote and comment on eleven statements from a 1986 CDF letter entitled, "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual People."
  
• The Psychology Behind Homosexual Tendencies Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons Makes Distinctions of Same-Sex Attractions
  Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons December 05, 2005
  Q: How would you distinguish between someone with same-sex attractions and someone with deep-seated homosexual tendencies? Fitzgibbons: Those with deep-seated homosexual tendencies identify themselves as homosexual persons and are usually unwilling to examine their emotional conflicts that caused this tendency.
  
• “Gay” Priest: An Oxymoron
  John Mallon, Contributing Editor to Inside the Vatican December 05, 2005
  Perhaps what is most disturbing is the number of priests who use the term “gay priest” seriously. It is one thing to be a faithful priest who struggles with same-sex attractions, but to openly proclaim one’s self “gay” is another matter. It calls fidelity into question. Is calling oneself “gay” in keeping with chastity? Such a man is trying to serve two masters. The word “gay” is a term of ideology. It implies that homosexual attractions are not merely a struggle but an identity. Some even go so far as to claim their homosexuality is a “gift from God” or that “God made me this way.”
  
• "Document Shows Homosexuals Much Sensitivity"
  Zenit, Cardinal Cottier December 01, 2005
  The document shows that there is a path and salvation for homosexuals in the measure that they bear their homosexuality in union with the suffering Christ. The document shows them much sensitivity. On the other hand, it doesnt mince matters. It makes the distinction between persons who engage in homosexual activity and those who have "deep-seated homosexual tendencies," and those who have slight, "transitory" tendencies, linked to episodes in their lives, of which I would say they can free themselves. Therefore, there are degrees.
  
• Father Harvey on Strengths of New Vatican Instruction
  Father John Harvey, Director of Courage International November 30, 2005
  I think this is a good thing instead of answering every question. It is clear of two types they do not want: those are actively engaged in a homosexual lifestyle and those who push the gay agenda, that "gay is good." People with that view should not be in seminary.
  
• Vermont church will keep gay priests
  KEVIN OCONNOR Rutland Herald Staff November 30, 2005
  Vermont Catholic Bishop Salvatore Matano will stand by gay priests as long as they stay celibate and teach that "homosexual activity is immoral." The Vatican said the worldwide Catholic Church wont ordain men who are active homosexuals, have "deep-seated tendencies" or support "gay culture."
  
• Gay-inclined are cut some slack
  Wyatt Buchanan, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer November 29, 2005
  Roman Catholic priests and seminary students with "homosexual inclinations" can be good priests and should not fear discussing the issue with their superiors, Bishop William S. Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement scheduled for release this morning.
  
• Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders
  Congregation for Catholic Education November 29, 2005
  The present Instruction does not intend to dwell on all questions in the area of affectivity and sexuality that require an attentive discernment during the entire period of formation. Rather, it contains norms concerning a specific question, made more urgent by the current situation, and that is: whether to admit to the seminary and to holy orders candidates who have deep- seated homosexual tendencies.
  
• Candidates for the priesthood should be well-balanced heterosexual men
  Dr. Gerard J. M. van den Aardweg November 22, 2005
  Homosexually afflicted persons cannot reach this full masculinity or femininity, at best incompletely. Hence, to look at homosexuality with reference to the priesthood or other church functions exclusively in terms of sexuality leads to errors of judgment, as though it were just the question of whether or not the prospective priest can persist in a life of continence.
  
• Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with Regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in View of Their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders
  Congregation for Catholic Education November 04, 2005
  According to the constant Tradition of the Church, only a baptized person of the male sex validly receives sacred ordination.(4) By means of the sacrament of orders, the Holy Spirit configures the candidate to Jesus Christ in a new and specific way: the priest, in fact, sacramentally represents Christ, the head, shepherd and spouse of the Church.(5) Because of this configuration to Christ, the entire life of the sacred minister must be animated by the gift of his whole person to the Church and by an authentic pastoral charity.(6) The candidate to the ordained ministry, therefore, must reach affective maturity. Such maturity will allow him to relate correctly to both men and women, developing in him a true sense of spiritual fatherhood towards the Church community that will be entrusted to him.(7)
  
• SHORTAGE OF PRIESTS (Proposition no. 11)
  Vatican Information Service October 25, 2005
  "In this context, the Synod Fathers affirmed the importance of the inestimable gift of ecclesiastical celibacy in the Latin Church. With reference to the Magisterium, especially to Vatican Council II and to recent Pontiffs, the Fathers requested that the faithful be given adequate explanation of the reasons for the link between celibacy and priestly ordination, in full respect for the tradition of the Eastern Churches. Some reference was made to viri probati, but it was decided that this was an untenable hypothesis.
  
• Cardinal Pell: Ending Celibacy Rule Would Be a Blunder
  Vatican Information Service, Cardinal George Pell October 12, 2005
  "Losing this tradition now would be a serious error, which would provoke confusion in the mission areas and would not strengthen spiritual vitality in the First World," he stressed. "It would be a departure from the practice of the Lord himself, bring significant practical disadvantages to the work of the Church, and weaken the sign value of the priesthood,"
  
• Letter to Bishops
  Dr. Rick Fitzgibbons, M.D. September 26, 2005
  In treating priests who have engaged in pedophilia and ephebophilia we have observed that these men almost without exception suffered from a denial of sin in their lives. They were unwilling to admit and address the profound emotional pain they experienced in childhood of loneliness, often in the father relationship, peer rejection, lack of male confidence, poor body image, sadness, and anger.
  
• Priestly Celibacy and the Vocation to Love Interview With a Physician-Theologian
  Veritas News Agency, Father Juan Ramón García-Morato September 25, 2005
  Both celibacy as well as marriage are paths to Christian fullness, namely, to holiness. We are all called to love, and Christian revelation points out two ways of realizing fully this vocation: marriage and celibacy in any of its forms. Both are included in Gods plans. Both need each other to understand each other better. Both are a path of self-giving. And to give oneself, one must first possess oneself.
  
• East-West Difference Over Priestly Celibacy And More on "Ustedes" vs. "Vosotros"
  Zenit, Father Edward McNamara September 13, 2005
  we can also consider that all Eastern Churches, Catholic and non-Catholic, hold clerical celibacy in high esteem. All of them choose bishops exclusively from the ranks of the celibate clergy, and while some of them admit married men to ordination, no priest or deacon marries or remarries once having received ordination. Of course, having a married clergy will lead to pastoral approaches that differ from those of the Latin Church.
  
• Psychology Rediscovers the Power of Forgiveness Robert Enright on a Means of Healing
  Zenit, Dr. Robert Enright September 12, 2005
  The origins of therapeutic psychology centered on the amelioration of emotional distress. As we all know, one can find peace through embracing God, the sacraments, and the Church. Those who founded therapeutic psychology did not have this particular worldview and in some cases outright rejected it. Thus, psychology traditionally went down a path that made no room for grace. While this has not changed, what has changed is the notion that people can and should embrace what is positive and good. Philosophers and theologians not only would be unsurprised by this, but also they would tell us that such ideas are nothing new, but ancient. To psychologists, this is a revelation. Part of this "new discovery" of the good is forgiveness.
  
• Same-Sex "Marriage" and Mental Health
  Dr. Rick Fitzgibbons July 20, 2005
  The peer-reviewed literature demonstrates that an inability to maintain committed relationships and rampant promiscuity are the norm in the homosexual lifestyle.
  
• Child Molestation by homosexuals and heterosexuals
  Brian W. Clowes and David L. Sonnier, HOMILETIC & PASTORAL REVIEW May 08, 2005
  During the current crisis, homosexual activists within and outside the Catholic Church have done everything they could to divert attention away from even the possibility that there may be a higher percentage of homosexuals among the priesthood than in the general public, and that this may be the root of the problem of child sexual molestation within the Church. It is particularly the link between homosexuality and child molestation that they seek to deny.
  
• Married Priests? The English Experience
  Dwight Longenecker, National Catholic Register February 16, 2005
  There are many people who argue for married priests from a pragmatic point of view. They think that allowing priests to marry will solve the priest shortage, solve the sexual-abuse scandals and the loneliness of priests all in one quick fix. These arguments are superficial. Catholics share a shortage in vocations with all the Christian denominations in the West. Protestants allow their ministers to marry, but they are still experiencing a shortage. Sex scandals exist in the denominations that allow their ministers to marry, and clergy marriages are notoriously difficult. It’s possible to be married and to be lonely. Marriage will not solve these problems, and if marriage could solve some problems that some priests encounter living their celibacy, it may very well create greater problems in the long term.
  
• Understanding of child sex abuse has evolved in last 50 years
  Jerry Filteau, Catholic News Service February 02, 2005
  But the experts interviewed said most people do not realize how little was known even in the most advanced countries until recently about sexual abuse of children, the impact on the victims, the psychological or other factors driving the perpetrators, the treatment needed for victims and perpetrators, or a variety of related issues. Contributing to the lack of knowledge was a combination of gaps in state or federal laws, lax prosecution of offenders, societal attitudes demeaning childrens claims, and implicit anti-disclosure policies by organizations serving children -- public schools and a wide range of nonprofit religious and child-service organizations.
  
• When clergy marry: An insider’s view
  Lynnewood F. Martin October 21, 2004
  Proponents of a married priesthood argue (1) that it would solve the priest shortage, and (2) that married priests would be more understanding of the problems of Catholic marriage; especially in regard to the Church’s restrictions on birth control and divorce and remarriage. Having been a married Protestant pastor for a decade before my conversion, I don’t think Catholics understand the problems which a married clergy—inevitably—would bring to the Church.
  
• Celibate Priest Reminds us of a Sort of Universal Virginity
  Zenit, Father Amedeo Cencini, Consultor to the Holy See September 20, 2004
  The "classical" motivation of priestly celibacy is of an eschatological, as the sign of a future state; Christological, because Christ chose to be celibate; and ecclesiological, as a sign of the Church Bride of Christ or as a gesture that calls for total or spousal dedication to the Church, nature. Obviously, what is most important is that the celibate make these reasons his own and live his celibacy as a choice of love, with a grateful heart free of egoisms, and with a profoundly spiritual attitude. If the priest is not profoundly spiritual, he is a poor celibate.
  
• For Priests, Celibacy Is Not the Problem
  Andrew Greeley March 03, 2004
  But as a priest and as someone who has been writing about the evil of sexual abuse by priests for two decades, I must also point to a substantial body of data collected over the last 35 years that presents another story, one which ought to be heard. These surveys of attitudes among priests and parishioners have shown that most dont consider celibacy the problem with the priesthood; the problem is that many priests dont do their job well.
  
• Lawyers in Abuse Cases Should Be Accountable
  America Magazine March 01, 2004
  Greater public scrutiny of lawyers for child victims of sexual abuse may be needed to assure that litigation is not psychologically harmful to victims and does not bankrupt organizations that serve children, wrote David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. “Many professionals have a sense that for some survivors, civil litigation ends up exacerbating their trauma rather than alleviating it,” Finkelhor wrote...
  
• Vatican: Church must work with scientific experts to prevent abuse
  Catholic News Service February 18, 2004
  Although cautioning that each case of sexual abuse against minors is unique, it sketched general characteristics of priest-abusers and identified a wide range of possible "risk factors," including sexual immaturity, narcissistic traits, alcohol and drug abuse, hormonal abnormalities and endocrine disorders.
  
• SEXUAL ABUSE IN SOCIAL CONTEXT
  Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights February 06, 2004
  The purpose of this special report is to put the recent scandal in the Catholic Church in perspective. It does not seek to exculpate anyone who had anything to do with priestly sexual misconduct, but it does seek to challenge those who continue to treat this issue in isolation. Indeed, to discuss the incidence of sexual abuse committed by Roman Catholic priests without reference to the level of offense found among the clergy of other religions, or to that of other professionals, is grossly unfair.
  
• Why A Married Priesthood Won't Remedy the Priest Shortage
  Patricia Dixon February 01, 2004
  It sounds lovely. But the advocates of a married clergy need to give a little more thought to the real consequences of their blithe slogans. Perhaps they will listen to a wife who has been there.
  

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