Normalizing the Unnatural

Jonathan Watson joins our ongoing conversation on homosexual priests:

There is one thought on MOJ which has shown itself in bits and pieces, but which is never outrightly discussed, and that is the question of this document being both a warning to seminaries and a reaction-by-confirmation to the scandals involving homosexual priests. This is the elephant in the closet to which MOJ commentators haven't spoken. 

Father Richard John Neuhaus writes: "[T]he Church pastorally cares and prays for people who struggle with disordered desires. But she should not jeopardize the mission of the priesthood by ordaining those who are thought likely to succumb to such desires." Nor, I suspect, those who hold that such desires are normal and normative (supporting a "gay" culture). It should also be noted that gay culture in the majority of the world is not supportive of monogamy in any real way, and so supporting that culture would be to promote promoscuity.

Canon 1029 of the Code of Canon Law states on the ordination of priests that: "Only those are to be promoted to orders who, in the prudent judgment of their own bishop or of the competent major superior, all things considered, have integral faith, are moved by the right intention, have the requisite knowledge, possess a good reputation, and are endowed with integral morals and proven virtues and the other physical and psychic qualities in keeping with the order to be received." I suspect that under physical and psychic qualities falls not only homosexuality, but also sexual addictions, and other things which the Church considers to be disorders.

I remember vaguely the journal articles and discussions spurred by selective fertilization by blind and deaf individuals seeking to have a blind or deaf child. The danger with normalizing that which is not normal is that the individuals who do need help will not receive it. The Vatican, clearly in the minority in this world, believes that supporting a gay culture is trying to do precisely that - normalizing something inherently unnatural. Doing so might prevent homosexuals from receiving treatment or assistance otherwise needed.