If the church didn’t push the paranoia, there wouldn’t be near the fear or worry about anything sexual. Humans are just that, only human and if you are inclined to believe, humans are forgiven and expected to make mistakes, errors and bad judgments, because we are mere humans.
One such error would be, following in someone’s else’s interpretation of the almighty’s words and laws. A person that is right with the lord has no worry of worldly issues or such trivialities as homophobia. Let the bigots and haters be, they will pay for their sins in the end.
Live right in your heart and within yourself and you are right and accepted by the ultimate power.
That may be, but this just reeks of something else in the wake of what this Pope has done, and is doing (or trying to do) with the damaged image of the church.
This same church now looks guilty of hypocrisy and intolerance.
I’ll bet you six cases of used hymn books this is someone in the Curia throwing wrenches at the Pontiff.
If you look at it from the perspective of the Catholic church, this guy took a vow of celibacy. If he is sexually active he is breaking that vow. To do that publicly calls is an active insult to all of the priests who have taken the same vow. Coming out and saying he is gay isn’t what got him fired. Introducing his boyfriend/lover is. There have been a lot of priests who have been fired for having open affairs with women.
He’s a Catholic priest- in theory at least suposed to keep it in his pants. Same thing would have happened, though everyone would have been a little more shocked, if he had introduced his girlfriend.
Gay people who are still Catholic sadden and puzzle me. In my mom’s tiny NH country Catholic church I attended for my dad’s memorial mass I saw three same sex couples, one with kids. They weren’t ostracized by any means, but I was wondering about how conflicted they are made to feel by a church who rejects them, their faith, and their families.
Not me. I am just not the type to accept that nonsense, or beg anyone to "accept " me. I accept myself, who else do I need?
Interesting response from the Church. Reuters reported on it, AP apparently chose not to:
The Vatican said the dismissal had nothing to do with Charasma’s reflections on his personal life, which it said “merit respect”.
But it said his interviews and the planned demonstration was “grave and irresponsible” given their timing on the eve of a synod of bishops who will discuss family issues, including the Church’s position on gays.
I can’t see a schism like that. If changes aren’t made, I think the Catholic Church dies off or has a very tiny footprint. I just got back from mass this morning and they went over the parish financials in the announcements - every year seems a little bleaker than the last one, this year was another loss - bigger than expected because of all the snow last winter killing the offertory and increasing capital expenditures - and our parish is already part of a collaborative where we have to share a pastor with another parish.
Why? If not for those people serving as every day examples that homosexuality is not an evil, and that it’s not in conflict with marital life, there won’t be change.
I live in the northeast and go every Sunday. If I heard a sermon or even a passive aggressive Prayers of the Faithful that condemned homosexuality, I’d probably walk out. I haven’t heard one like that since I was a child. The local churches make no attempt to preach the socially unacceptable positions the larger church takes.
Haven’t been in the RCC for many years, so you have a better view of it than I do. My impression is a schism is unlikely too, if only because priests have to be certified by the hierarchy, which answers to the Vatican. In order for a schism to be stable, there would need to be a structure and mechanism for ordaining new clergy that was not Vatican-based. This would require (at a minimum) that some existing Catholic institutions would have to switch over to the schismatic group, and they’d need to work out some deal with the Vatican over ownership of church assets (which I don’t see them giving an inch on) as well as establishment of a new leadership of the schismatics. I have a hard time seeing this happen.
As others have pointed out, there’s always the Anglicans for liberal ex-catholics to go to.
Not quite.
If the Church canned every priest who was simply gay, having consensual sex, or even having gay consensual sex, they’d hardly be able to keep the lights on.
However, THIS particular priest works in Vatican press office.
Not embarrassing the Vatican is his JOB.
So naturally, he decided to come out.
Not to his folks, not to the other guys at the Vatican press office, but in the widest-circulated newspaper in Italy.
He’s like Kim Davis in reverse.
If being let go isn’t exactly what he expected to happen, he’s an idiot.
For one thing, there is such a thing as being a Catholic by culture. You can be an atheist/agnostic and still enjoy being a member of the tribe.
For another thing, there’s a huge difference between Church doctrine and how individual Catholics live–as this priest demonstrates. Fat-headed though the bishops usually are about these things, nuns and parish priests (i.e., who actually spend their time with lay and non-Catholics) are often much more accepting.
Priests aren’t supposed to have girlfriends or boyfriends. A priest who publicly announced he had a girlfriend would also be in trouble with the Church.
