It Is Very Fragile. We Must Be Careful With It.

 

The issue of gay clerics in the church fits perfectly into the wider "Post Truth" duplicity we experience in the world. No clique is exclusive but generally speaking you have those who think the church needs to listen to and respond to the "Sensus Fidei" of contemporary gay priests and religious, many who will be praying and encouraging change from an irregular status.

Those within or ad limina may quietly stand with the above or see a gay expression as part of the perfection process that may pass and become a chaste expression. This may lead them, in their roles as formators, tending to God's flower bed, rather than to just boot someone out and discard them, assist them to find their place to bloom as lay people if it is discerned that priesthood / religious life is not the vineyard / flowerbed for them.

Most holding the above positions will be holding forth in an authentic, honest, truthful and transparent way leaving themselves wide open to attack by the third group.

Those who hold forth in the public arena claiming adherence to "Traditional Church Teaching" but in private carry on like they were propping up the bar in a gay pub. They have many supporters who only witness the pious sermons and zealous youth will rally to them and some will seek to retreat in their religious houses and even join as postulants / novices. Those young people will be totally wrong footed when they experience the behind the scenes. Hopefully they run for the hills not knowing whether to mention anything to those outside or make a complaint to church hierarchy. Perhaps they do and are satisfied with assurances that the matter is being dealt with or perhaps they become alienated from peers and even parents who refuse to believe them. Perhaps they bury it for 10,20, 30 years...who knows... maybe the harms express in failure to launch, drug or alcohol abuse. Whether these clerics joke within an inner core of fellows about this great game I don't know. I suspect not. I think this ruse exists and has existed for a long time precisely because the official / public mouth says one thing and defends it to the hilt while the private body does the complete opposite. It's a total mind (You fill in the gap!) for anyone truthful and conscientious. Others will learn quickly, perhaps turning initial pain and disillusionment into opportunity and a niche for themselves.... and so a new generation!

As I said at the start. No clique is exclusive. There will be those of a traditionalist mind who will approach gay manifestation as potentially a process of perfection and not necessarily an instant reason to direct someone toward a lay path, but I think so fearful are they of the duplicitous kind misrepresenting them, that they do not enter the public arena with their message of mercy and pastoral care. Sadly this heightens the chance of youth inspired to try and live a chaste life, ending up in the hands of the "Mental Reservation!" 

My original thought for titling this blogpost was "Clear As Mud!" which it is.

Then, "The Light Shines In The Darkness" Deo Gratias!

But I thought of that scene in The Thorn Birds where the rose falls out of Ralphs brieviary and wished that I had been formed and assisted by those described in the second example who, if those described in the third get their way, will be hung out to dry and scapegoated as the gay problem within the church whereas in my opinion it is They! 

The inspiration for this blogpost, if you can call it that, was discovering this article from May regarding the Abbey, Christ In The Desert and the comments that ensued.