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Courage in Your Diocese
Dear Mr. Allen,
The rash of priests molesting teenage young men is a prime example of why homosexuality in the priesthood doesn't work. The seduction of adolescent boys by unrepentant priests can be attributed in part to a clerical gay subculture within the Catholic Church that fails to discipline homosexual activity by its supportive silence or subtle protection.
Homosexual harrassment and promiscuity are rampant in some seminaries. Indeed, seminaries like St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore (“The Pink Palace”), Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans (“Notre Flame”) and Theological College at Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. (“Theological Closet”) are known for their attraction to homosexual recruits. The end result is the existence of a clerical homosexual network and its sympathizers that promote homosexuality in Catholic institutions and fail to discipline priests who act out sexually with male adults or adolescents. In an overcompassionate attempt to communicate tolerance for homosexuals, they have also condoned the sin of homogenital acts.
What to do? Marriage does not cure homosexuality. Instead, seminarian applicants and students must be screened for problematic same-sex urges. Already-ordained priests struggling with same sex attractions must be given the opportunity to participate in a Courage chapter in their diocese. Founded by Fr. John Harvey in 1980, Courage is the only Vatican approved ministry to homosexuals.
Although Courage has a successful history of assisting homosexual and lesbian Catholics in leading fulfilled chaste lives, Courage support groups are actively discouraged in some dioceses (including Los Angeles, Albany, and Richmond) in favor of gay affirming ministries which either ignore chastity or condone sodomy. How then are gay clergy and laity expected to refrain from homosexual behavior in accordance with the Catholic Church's teachings when there is no such support group in their diocese? Priests and laity struggling with homosexuality need real compassion and not some patronizing “sexual orientation diversity” ministry.
It is time for us Catholics to clean up each one of our dioceses. An outraged laity must replace gay-affirming ministries with practicing Catholics. Please encourage Catholic Exchange viewers who do not have a Courage chapter in their church and diocese to demand one immediately from their pastors and bishops. Our children and gay brethren deserve no less.
Sincerely,
Regina Griggs
Executive Director
Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX)
pfox.exgays@starpower.net
703-360-2225
A Question of Discipline
Dear Christy,
Thank you for taking time to write articles for Catholic Exchange. I read your article Forging the Rapids of Parenthood and would like to comment and add another viewpoint. I feel compelled to write as I was concerned about the response to the “milk” episode in your article. To be sure I was not totally off base, I asked my husband to read the article; he was also surprised. What would happen if that behavior had taken place at a friend's home or in a restaurant?
I believe that Christian mothers are often high in mercy and service — which often results in enabling others to continue in unacceptable behaviors or in them failing to reach their full potential as children of God. Even though a child may be too young to understand all the reasons behind behaving in a certain way, I believe they can still be trained in what is “acceptable behavior”. Because of our sensitivity and compassion as women, we can easily fall into the trap of excusing a behavior because we understand the motivation behind it. For example, a child begins to misbehave or cry because he is tired. Do we stop the behavior or allow it to continue saying, “Oh, he is tired.”? As adults, we try to control our impulses to respond the way we feel, but this comes best when we have done so from our youth.
As a mother of 5 and grandmother of 9, I have seen both scenarios in our families. I believe your comment about training for adolescence is credible, but the riding the wave would apply more to teens than those under six. The early years are the formidable ones which set the foundation with God's principles. Once the foundation is in place, we can allow the teens to weather their own storms, facing the consequences of their actions, with the tools they received while young. In Deut. 6 & Pvb. 22, we see God telling us to instruct our children in the way they are to go. Lack of discipline is very detrimental to all of us.
Thank you for taking the time to read another side.
Valerie
Re: Valerie's response above. As a grandmother myself, I'm more than aware of the enabling behavior of mothers and grandmothers to which Valerie refers. In no way did I interpret Christy's article as advocating that dysfunctional behavior.
It is much more disturbing to me when Old Testament texts re: discipline are cited without reference to New Testament mercy. Rather than implying that it is dysfunctional for women to give in to inappropriate behavior because we understand motivation, it is much more helpful (and in line with Church teaching) to state the dichotomy in terms of “both/and” rather than “either/or”. i.e., Merciful mothering models merciful behavior for children (and others). Sometimes mercy takes the form of consequences but never condemnation or condesension without compassion (“suffering with”).
Mary our Mother is the living and ever-present model and “enabler” of our ability to apply this ideal in life's daily circumstances. If we lose track of her New Testament interpretation of God's greatest characteristic (mercy), we drop a stitch that eventually causes the whole garment to unravel.
Glenna Bradshaw
