Homosexuality of the RCC

Homosexuality -22

Bishops Avoided 'Real' Issues of Celibacy and Homosexuality, Activists Say

By Allie Martin and Rusty Pugh

June 17, 2002

(AgapePress) - A former homosexual who was raised in the Catholic Church says the requirement of celibacy for priests is a contributing factor to the growing sex-abuse scandal among Catholic priests.

News reports say the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says priests who molest young people will be removed from active ministry -- and in some cases, could be thrown out of the priesthood. Bishop Wilton Gregory, who presided over the meeting of American bishops in Dallas, told NBC's Meet the Press that abusive priests will be like doctors or lawyers who lose their licenses.

"None of them will be in a position to harm children," Gregory said. "None of them will have a public office. None of them will be able to present themselves as priests."

Gregory said that men with homosexual inclinations can be good priests -- provided they are able to keep their vow of celibacy. But Stephen Bennett believes that vow is partly to blame for the current crises in the Catholic Church.

Bennett was brought up in the Catholic Church and was involved in the homosexual subculture for ten years as a young adult. He eventually left both the Catholic Church and his sinful life as a homosexual. Bennett says the Catholic Church's celibacy requirement for priests is a direct contradiction to qualifications for church leaders, as outlined in the third chapter of 1 Timothy.

"One of the commandments in that [scripture] is they [church leaders] need to be married, the husband of one wife. I take that seriously -- and I can understand what the Catholics are trying to [say with the vow of celibacy]: that you can be holier by giving yourself completely over to God," Bennett says. "But one of the key verses also in the Bible ... says in the end-times that people are going to forbid men to marry and abstain from meats. That kind of described the church that I was part of."

Bennett says he believes a large number of Catholic priests will be forced to resign in the wade of the sex-abuse scandal.

A Sin is a Sin is a Sin ...

And following the completion of the Bishops Conference in Dallas, a pro-family advocate says the policy adopted by Catholic bishops still does not face the truth: that homosexuality is a sin that must be dealt with.

Rev. Flip Benham of the group Operation Rescue says the bishops ignored the real problem during the annual meeting. He says as predicted, they did not address the issue of what he describes as "rampant homosexuality" in the Catholic clergy ranks.

Benham says the bishops -- and the national media -- kept the focus on the molesting of young people, but away from the real issue. "The problem with that is that we're not dealing with the issue of pedophilia, we're dealing with the issue of homosexuality," Benham says. "And if there's ever going to be healing in our land, we're going to have to confess the truth that homosexuality is a sin, that for priests to do this and take advantage of young boys is a sin that cries out to heaven -- and God is now exposing this horrible sin so that He can clean up His house."

The policy adopted Friday by the bishops will bar sexually abusive clergy from face-to-face contact with parishioners, but keep them in the priesthood.