"Violent and abusive," too.
From 365gay.com:
Nearly two dozen Chicago area priests in an open letter have denounced the Vatican's anti-gay rhetoric, calling it "vile and toxic".
Saying they can no longer remain silent, the priests from parishes in both the city of Chicago and the suburbs the priests said the Church is being "divisive and exclusionary" and "increasingly violent and abusive."
It is the first mass revolt in the Catholic Church by clergy over the issues of gay priests and same-sex marriage.
Cardinal Francis George, bishop of Chicago, thinks they have a point...
"As priests and pastors we are speaking out to make clear that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters are all members of God's family, brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus and deserving of the same dignity and respect owed any human being," the letter stated.
The priests said they were particularly disturbed by Vatican documents that called gay sex and same-sex marriage as "intrinsically disordered," "a troubling moral and social phenomenon" and "harmful to the proper development of society." Such language is driving gays from the church, the letter said.
In April a new Vatican dictionary was released saying gays have no "social value." A 12 page direction to clergy in July said same-sex marriage was "deviant and a threat to society." In October, the Vatican directed priests in AIDS ravaged Africa to tell people not to use condoms because they will not stop the disease. Earlier this month the Vatican suspended ecumenical talks with the Anglican Church over the consecration of a gay bishop in the US.
Cardinal Francis George, the bishop of Chicago, issued a response saying: "The church speaks, in moral and doctrinal issues, a philosophical and theological language in a society that understands, at best, only psychological and political terms."
"Our language is exact, but it does not help us in welcoming men and women of homosexual orientation," he wrote. "It can seem lacking in respect. This is a pastoral problem and a source of anxiety for me as it is for you. It would be good to discuss together."
But George went on to say that pastors must "mediate the tension between welcoming people and calling them to change."
If "you cannot resolve that tension between welcoming people as they are and still calling them to leave their sinfulness and become saints, or if you yourself do not accept the Church's moral teaching on the moral use of the gift of sexuality, it would be all the more important for us to talk," he wrote.
First, I applaud these priests. To stand up against the Vatican and for their gay brothers and sisters is very brave, and sends a message of God's love at a time when the Vatican is delinquent in that duty. I don't know if this will encourage other priests to speak up, but I do know there is considerable discomfort among many US clergy with the Vatican's increasingly incendiary language regarding gays.
I'm not sure what the theological and political ramifications of this may be. Theologically, most mountains are more susceptible to being budged than the Vatican is. The Vatican has an agenda with this abusive language. But perhaps if enough priests speak out, some sort of change in tone could occur.
Politically, it certainly helps the center-left to have a highly visible revolt against the Vatican among priests over gay issues. But whether the media will make this revolt "highly visible" remains to be seen.
Anyone else have thoughts on the significance of this? Anyone else want to just post "It's about f*cking time!!!"?