The pope speaks about materialism for
one straight week in Brazil before millions of people, and his formal
comments garner 74 news stories on Lexis-Nexis.
He speaks off-the-cuff
about homosexual priests before a handful of reporters on the airplane
going back to Rome and his remarks trigger 220 news stories. One might
logically conclude that the pope broke some new ground with his comments
on gay priests. But he didn’t.
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| Wait. Catholic Teaching isn't against being a homosexual, just promoting it? |
Pope Benedict XVI, responding to the
homosexual scandal in the Catholic Church (one more time—less than 5
percent of the cases of priestly sexual abuse involved pedophilia), did
not make it impossible for gays to enter the priesthood; he simply made
it more difficult for those who were practicing gays to enter. Pope
Francis said nothing to contradict what his predecessor said. And by
addressing the gay lobby, he was clearly speaking out against what the
late Father Andrew Greeley called the “lavender mafia.”
About ten years ago, I was interviewed by David France for a book he was writing, Our Fathers,
about gays in the Catholic Church. Here is a selection of what I said:
“I don’t think most Catholics would care if their priest is gay or
straight, to tell the truth. I think the issue for them is whether he
can live up to his vow of celibacy. I’d take a chaste gay priest any day
over a promiscuous straight one.”
France was ecstatic, much the way
reporters are now with the pope. In both instances, their eudemonia is a
reflection of the way they stereotype orthodox Catholics.
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