Guest Column Our Sunday Visitor Nov. 20, 2005
Priestly Fatherhood
Why men who have same-sex orientation must not be admitted to Catholic seminaries
by Dr. G.C. Dilsaver
The 20th century witnessed a progressive jettisoning of Christian values and an acute decomposition of the traditional family. As a result, it also witnessed a dramatic rise in the phenomenon of gender-identity disorders.
This phenomenon of psychosexual abnormality is manifest in the Catholic Church by fact that 80 percent of the current sexual-abuse charges brought against priests have been of a homosexual nature. This statistic has given credence to reports of a homosexual subculture within the ranks of the clergy and has thus caused the Curia to consider establishing formal barriers to men who seek the confines of its all-male priesthood as a haven for, or an escape from, homosexual orientation.
Homosexuality is properly highlighted as a key pathology to guard against in the priesthood, not, as some erroneously hold, because its corresponding sin is so much more grievous than other mortal sins, but because it is the one that most directly and gravely impacts manhood and its vocation of fatherhood, be it clerical or familial.
The seminary, or any society of man living together, is not the most innocuous of settings for a man with a homosexual disposition; it is, at the very least, an occasion of sin. Some men with same-sex attraction seek out a celibate cadre because demonstrations of heterosexuality are not overtly required. Others enter an all-male environment because of an explicit psychological-sexual attraction to men or desire for homosexual liaisons.
As such, the first and most basic evaluation of applicants to the seminary should their feelings toward marriage and family. If an applicant has a desire to marry, if he views giving up feminine marital companionship and the fathering of children as a sacrifice, then he may have a vocation to the priesthood. When such is the case, a possible future priest’s intentions are validated by sacrifice from the beginning: His motives are pure, for his ascent of the Tabor of priestly ordination is simultaneously an ascent of the Golgotha of sacrificial immolation.
An authentic Catholic psychological evaluation must also become an integrated part of the candidacy process. Identifying sound Catholic psychologists who locate the science of psychology within a Catholic anthropology to conduct these evaluations is crucial.
Such psychologists can be invaluable adjuncts to the process of seminary admission and formation in their administration of clinical interviews, psychological testing and psychotherapy. However, the essential remedy of the current crisis lies not in psychology. Rather, the remedy lies in a renewed morality, spirituality and doctrinal orthodoxy, for it is the implementation and practice of these that will best ensure psychological soundness.
Indeed, even those men who are healthy psychosexually must be able to show that they are able to live the celibate lifestyle for some years before they are ordained.
They reasons for such rigorous standards are threefold. Sufficient unto themselves are the first two reasons, both of which are for the good of the Church – the incomparable august nature of the priesthood and the need to avoid ecclesial scandal. The third reason is for the sake of the would-be ordained. For a man at ordination receives not only an indelible mark upon his soul, but a bull’s eye upon his back, becoming a most prized target for Satan.
If the celibate priesthood is to thrive in the modern era, this propensity of all-male environments to foster homosexuality must find a striking exception in Catholic clerical culture. Indeed, this culture must again become synonymous with the natural virtues of fatherly manhood and the supernatural virtues of priestly fatherhood and thus become altogether unconducive to effeminacy and homosexuality.
Priestly Fatherhood
Why men who have same-sex orientation must not be admitted to Catholic seminaries
by Dr. G.C. Dilsaver
The 20th century witnessed a progressive jettisoning of Christian values and an acute decomposition of the traditional family. As a result, it also witnessed a dramatic rise in the phenomenon of gender-identity disorders.
This phenomenon of psychosexual abnormality is manifest in the Catholic Church by fact that 80 percent of the current sexual-abuse charges brought against priests have been of a homosexual nature. This statistic has given credence to reports of a homosexual subculture within the ranks of the clergy and has thus caused the Curia to consider establishing formal barriers to men who seek the confines of its all-male priesthood as a haven for, or an escape from, homosexual orientation.
Homosexuality is properly highlighted as a key pathology to guard against in the priesthood, not, as some erroneously hold, because its corresponding sin is so much more grievous than other mortal sins, but because it is the one that most directly and gravely impacts manhood and its vocation of fatherhood, be it clerical or familial.
The seminary, or any society of man living together, is not the most innocuous of settings for a man with a homosexual disposition; it is, at the very least, an occasion of sin. Some men with same-sex attraction seek out a celibate cadre because demonstrations of heterosexuality are not overtly required. Others enter an all-male environment because of an explicit psychological-sexual attraction to men or desire for homosexual liaisons.
As such, the first and most basic evaluation of applicants to the seminary should their feelings toward marriage and family. If an applicant has a desire to marry, if he views giving up feminine marital companionship and the fathering of children as a sacrifice, then he may have a vocation to the priesthood. When such is the case, a possible future priest’s intentions are validated by sacrifice from the beginning: His motives are pure, for his ascent of the Tabor of priestly ordination is simultaneously an ascent of the Golgotha of sacrificial immolation.
An authentic Catholic psychological evaluation must also become an integrated part of the candidacy process. Identifying sound Catholic psychologists who locate the science of psychology within a Catholic anthropology to conduct these evaluations is crucial.
Such psychologists can be invaluable adjuncts to the process of seminary admission and formation in their administration of clinical interviews, psychological testing and psychotherapy. However, the essential remedy of the current crisis lies not in psychology. Rather, the remedy lies in a renewed morality, spirituality and doctrinal orthodoxy, for it is the implementation and practice of these that will best ensure psychological soundness.
Indeed, even those men who are healthy psychosexually must be able to show that they are able to live the celibate lifestyle for some years before they are ordained.
They reasons for such rigorous standards are threefold. Sufficient unto themselves are the first two reasons, both of which are for the good of the Church – the incomparable august nature of the priesthood and the need to avoid ecclesial scandal. The third reason is for the sake of the would-be ordained. For a man at ordination receives not only an indelible mark upon his soul, but a bull’s eye upon his back, becoming a most prized target for Satan.
If the celibate priesthood is to thrive in the modern era, this propensity of all-male environments to foster homosexuality must find a striking exception in Catholic clerical culture. Indeed, this culture must again become synonymous with the natural virtues of fatherly manhood and the supernatural virtues of priestly fatherhood and thus become altogether unconducive to effeminacy and homosexuality.