Drain the Clerical Swamp

TRANSCRIPT

Last week, in Friday's Vortex, we asked the question directly to Fr. James Martin: Do you identify as a homosexual? Yes or no?

There are many reasons for that question to be asked, and those reasons criss-cross over theological, spiritual and political lines. Let's begin our further examination of this question about Fr. Martin with the understanding that there are many priests and bishops and even cardinals who are either secret homosexuals, or at least way too friendly to that agenda. Pope Benedict said so. Pope Francis has said so, and the raw facts of the state of the Church these days say so, not to mention the gigantic homosexual priest sex abuse scandal that cost the Church in the U.S. nearly $3 billion.

Men who identify as homosexuals who go on to get ordained are an extreme danger to the Church and the average Catholic. It's why the Church forbids them from being ordained in the first place — a rule that many liberal and Church of Nice bishops simply ignore — and they were doing it long before Pope Francis arrived on the scene.

Many bishops today still seem unconcerned about ordaining a man who identifies as homosexual — perhaps because they feel an affinity with them — as long as that man doesn't appear to display traits which might make him a financial or legal liability down the road for abusing altar boys.

For the man who sees himself, his sexuality, as homosexual, something that needs to be incorporated into his spirituality as a priest, such a man is lying to himself. And he will substitute in a heartbeat Church teaching as a result of his own deep, inordinate desire to be accepted.

Father Martin claims that priests who are homosexual are more fit and able to identify with those who suffer. They may feel more at home with them — probably true — but they are considerably less likely, because of their own psychological illness and perhaps guilty consciences, to instruct them in the hard truths of the Church.

In fact, priests who self-identify as homosexual have created a virtual cottage industry of actually undermining those hard truths of the Church. They see the Church and Her teachings as oppressive, hurtful, marginalizing and all that — the very way they feel all the time, precisely because they identify as gay. Their entire self-perception is wrapped up in their homosexuality, and in that great interior struggle which comes from their own longsuffering, they are quick to reject the hard truths because they create a scenario in their minds that these hard truths make them more of a victim class.

So they tell young men in confession that masturbation is okay. They tell other homosexual travelers that sex between them is okay as long as it's monogamous. And they get into positions of power and influence in the Church and rain down terror on anyone who promotes authentic Catholic teaching. And they feel completely justified in doing so because the pain of their past and present needs to find an enemy on which to seek revenge.

Martin paints the ordained homosexual as approaching sanctity. He conveniently never addresses the vindictiveness present in the homosexual subculture — the personal pettiness and jealousy and rage. Nor does he ever approach the topic of promiscuity present among those who identify as homosexual males.

For a man who spends so much time cheerleading for homosexuality to be accepted in the Church, it's odd that he almost never mentions these aspects of life in the homosexual world, aspects which are very present on that scene. Men like Martin and many others — so many that the average Catholic would be revulsed if they knew the reality — go about their insidious work not because they care about the "other," but because they care about themselves and want to be relieved of the desperate guilt and anxiety they feel.

They have this affliction and never moved beyond it. They will not preach the hard truths because what the man who self-identifies as homosexual fears more than anything on earth is rejection. They don't really accept themselves, and if others reject them, a psychological tailspin of grief and despair sets in that it is nearly impossible to pull out of.

So the self-identifying homosexual priest (whether he is sexually active or not) will want to be crowd-pleaser. The Mass becomes a grand stage for him to be "accepted" by the "audience" in the pews — not the Sacrifice of the Son to the Father. Even those who cannot overcome their personal shyness and be great performers still suffer from the affliction of needing acceptance.

If they can't get the crowd to applaud them and give them a false sense of self-worth, they can always have security in not offending so as not to be rejected. This particular strategy is a favorite among self-identifying homosexual prelates. Never offend, or at least do everything in your power to give as little offense as possible so nobody rejects you, even if they don't really applaud you.

What a woeful, crippling platform from which to govern as a successor of the Apostles.

They heard in seminaries — all on the quiet, of course — that it's okay to have gay sexual partners, as long as they are other priests, that they should never go outside the clerical state to relieve themselves sexually — too much chance of the reality getting known. This has been the standard in at least the American priesthood for decades now.  

The priestly ministry has been crippled in its exercise because of the intrinsic disorder of the homosexual priest. The priesthood, which is intrinsically "other"-related, has become largely a "me" experience. Self-identifying homosexual priests, because they suffer from a deep psychological disorder, are not capable of being "Father." They are only capable of being hurt and deeply wounded son. And because of this, they will throw aside Holy Mother Church any time they perceive a contest between themselves and the teaching.

The priesthood for these men is not a place where, as Abp. Sheen described it, the man burns himself out like a candle for the good of his spiritual children, but rather a place where they can nourish their own hurts at the expense of their spiritual children. And those of them that do ascend to the office of bishop — the destruction to the Faith is multiplied a thousand times over.

Until this ecclesiastical swamp is drained, little is going to change in the Church. There is too much overlooking and embracing of homosexuality in the ranks of Catholic priests and bishops.