more on the Church's latest announcement

ETA:I'm unlocking this post because I feel the need for some sincere discussion and education on the matter. I welcome and encourage comments from anyone so interested; that being said, I ask commenters to be civil in their words. Disagreement and/or debate doesn't require rudeness, after all. Thanks.

For those of you who missed (or avoided!) it yesterday, this is the info I'm discussing:

quote from a news item at Catholic Exchange:

Vatican, Sep. 19 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) has given his approval to a new Vatican policy document indicating that men with homosexual tendencies should not be ordained as Catholic priests.

(snip)

The text, which was approved by Pope Benedict at the end of August, says that homosexual men should not be admitted to seminaries even if they are celibate, because their condition suggests a serious personality disorder which detracts from their ability to serve as ministers.

Yesterday I mentioned that the document made me vaguely uncomfortable, but I couldn't decide what about it was pinging my wrongometer.

I think I've pinpointed what it is, exactly, about this latest stance of the Church that irks me. Let me quote yet again, this time from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994 edition:

2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. They do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is 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 God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

In particular, I'm reading the part that says they must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. To me, this newest stance of the Vatican's, the "you can't become a priest if you have the slightest tendency towards being gay," is in direct contradiction to what the Catechism says.

The Church teaches that if a person is homosexual, he or she is required to live in celibacy. Okay, fine; if we accept that (which, again, I understand is a point of contention), isn't it an "unjust discrimination" against those people (okay, those men, since this is Catholicism) to refuse them the priesthood?

(Not to mention that the sense I'm getting from this latest directive is that they believe homosexual men are more likely to be sexually abusive to children, which I believe has been proven untrue.)

Seems like I’m getting at a big part of my spiritual/existential crisis, doesn’t it. Hm.

I guess this is the problem I end up facing, when it comes down to it. As a Catholic, I’m required to believe the doctrines of the Church. Even if I disagree with them, I’m supposed to submit to the legitimate authority of the Pope and the Magisterium, accepting that they know better than I do.

But what about in a situation such as this, where I honestly believe they are contradicting themselves? Then what?

I don’t know. I don’t know. I feel like I’m being asked(required?)to sacrifice my freedom of thought - my ability to think independently, even - in order to be a good Catholic. I understand that as an adult, I’m responsible for informing my own conscience to guide my free will – but what if, in my work to inform myself, I come to a conclusion that is contrary to what the Church says? Evidently, the correct answer is that I need to believe that I am in error, that my fallible human brain is in error, and then toe the line with what I’ve been told to think.

I’m getting rankled. *tries to calm down*

I’m guessing that what a priest, or a more faithful Catholic, would tell me is that in such a case, I should do more study, and more research until my opinions were in concert with those of the Church. That and, of course, lots of prayer – presumably for obedience.

And just to complicate things, I actually can understand that I need to “take God’s word for it.” I can apply the analogy to my relationship with my kids, and I can accept that God knows better.

(My favorite analogy: a piece of bread gets stuck in the toaster. My son goes to unstick it with a metal butter knife. I stop him and tell him he can’t do that because it might kill him. He doesn’t understand electricity or conductivity, and it’s not the kind of thing he can experiment with without grave danger – so he just has to trust that I know what’s best.

This is, to me, kind of similar to God telling me something. Do I understand it? No, not necessarily. But I don’t need to understand it to believe (and obey) it, because I believe God knows what is best for me, like a parent (usually) knows what’s best for his or her well-loved child.)

But I can’t believe that God wants His Church to actively discriminate against gay men in this particular way. God calls them to chastity, celibacy even – I can get there, mentally. I can see where that comes from. And I understand the requirement for a celibate, unmarried priesthood. I get that too. But a blanket refusal to allow men who’ve shown “homosexual tendencies” – and how is that being determined, by the way, if these men have led celibate lives? – to enter the seminary?

That I don’t get.