Tarcisio Bertone's comments linking paedophilia with homosexuality will cause ripples around the world.
His comments may allow people to talk about many issues within the clerical state, and if it does that, then his comments may have some value.
According to the people who know, clinical psychiatrists there is no link between homosexuality and paedophilia.
The church, at least in the last 100 years, and of course longer too, has made the issue of sexuality within the priesthood a taboo subject. Tarcisio Bertone has changed that forever. His comment surely allows people to discuss the issue openly and honestly.
It is clear there are men and women who are heterosexual and others who are homosexual. In the past many homosexual men and women were forced to hide their orientation.
Is it possible that priesthood was a refuge for men who were/are homosexual in orientation?
Is there a greater proportion of homosexual men in priesthood than in other vocations/groupings?
What happens if in a religious community or within a diocese there is a significant number of homosexual men?
Are these issues ever discussed within communities/dioceses?
What happens if homosexual priests are forced to hide their orientation?
Is there a link between men, who are forced to hide their homosexual orientation, and their interest in ceremony and liturgical practice?
Then practical questions; is it appropriate for a man, who is homosexual in orientation but has to hide it, be a head master in a boys' boarding school?
Is it appropriate for a man who is homosexual in orientation and again has to hide it, be in charge of the formation of men studying for the priesthood?
Is there a link between priests who have to hide their sexual orientation and misogyny?
Are these issues, can these issues ever be discussed in openness, charity and honesty?
Do priests who have to hide their homosexual orientation develop 'belief systems' that seem far removed from the world of ordinary men and women?
The Bertone comment is a wonderful opportunity for the church to make a real effort in allowing for open and honest dialogue on these issues. Will they examine the number of priests who took their own lives because of the difficulties they had with their homosexual orientation.
When the Wall in Berlin fell it cast away all the nonsnese and madness that surrounded the communist system. Bertone has knocked a wall. He has afforded the church a wonderful opportunity. It should be grasped.
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2 comments:
For those who read German, I found the following link honest, moving and very revealing.
http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/gesellschaft/0,1518,686544,00.html
Michael, I respectfully disagree. All that Bertone has done is to reinforce the view of many that the church is deeply homophobic and dishonest about itself. I do not believe that anyone will sweriously believe that this is a call to open and honest debate.
Some years back Joaquim Navarro-Valls linked paedophilia within the Church with the issue of homosexual clergy. The logic goes like this:
AS homosexuals cannot be validly ordained and
AS clergy child abusers are all homosexual, and
AS such abusers are therefore not validly ordained
THEREFORE no ‘true’ priest ever abused a child.
With this kind of logic, it is little surprise that much of the 'theological' debate is one of the Alice in Wonderland type.
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