ANOTHER CRIME?

Could Fitzgerald be looking for someone who violated this law?

EMAIL OF THE DAY: “The stubborn spark of hope you cling to regarding the decency of the Catholic masses is sweet, but it’s sad to see you get kicked in the face so often just the same. I’m afraid another boot is headed your way. First, I doubt Benedict XVI will demand the ouster of all current gay priests and bishops – that strategy invites the possibility of a great deal of embarassment, as former priests kicked out of a job would be a potentially endless source of dirty laundry regarding other Catholic officials. Can you imagine? The far wiser course would be to bar all homosexuals from entering seminary and adopting a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that grandfathers the gay priests who are already ordained, keeping them scared but very aware that they still won’t lose everything if they keep quiet.

Second, the vast majority of heterosexual Catholics will actually approve of Benedict’s decree and will thank him for it. By permitting existing gay priests to remain and banning only future gay priests from being ordained, the pope will place the stigma of homosexual menace only on faceless individuals who have not yet had the chance to let their gifts as priests win them supporters among the Catholic rank and file. Heterosexual Catholics will not “rise up and defend” someone they have never met. Rather, they will solemnly nod and think to themselves, ‘finally, someone is taking a step to protect our children’ and conveniently ignore the fact that any pedophile can still enter the priesthood just by telling a few lies to himself. It won’t matter that this new policy neither serves justice nor solves the problem of pedophile priests to any degree: people are desperate for certainty and security, and will create it even when it doesn’t really exist. Unfortunately, that aspect of human nature is the bedrock of all faiths, and we will see it come into play here as well.”

I don’t disagree with any of this. The question will be how the thousands of gay priests now serving the Church will respond. I suspect they will do what they often have: perform their service because that is their calling, and endure the obloquy and taint of association with child molesters as the cross they have to bear. But I hope more find the grace to come out, to tell their parishioners who they are, if they haven’t already, and explain how this new policy is unjust and violates the most basic precepts of justice, fairness and charity.