Fr. Jeff Coning: Homosexuality and the Priesthood

The Vatican finally released the document from the Congregation for Catholic Education on the homosexuality and the priesthood. This document has been the topic of much debate, from whether it actually existed to what it would proclaim about the topic. I have read the document and have several thoughts about it.

One is that the Church has gone to great lengths to be as specific as possible about the issue of homosexuality. The Church has always taught that it is the act that is a grave sin and not the person; although the Church recognizes that a person with homosexual tendencies carries a greater burden than a person without these tendencies. This document does not change this teaching in any manner. This document does not add a new understanding or dimension to this teaching.

This document states that a young man who presents himself to the Church because he has a calling to the priesthood be rejected if he “practice[s] homosexuality, present[s] deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support[s] the so-called ‘gay culture.’” Some might argue that this is harsh and/or discrimination, but if we stop and think about it this statement actually makes a great deal of sense.

The Church has long taught that the act of sex only belongs in a marriage because it has two principles that must always be joined. That is it must always be unitive and procreative. And that to block one is always a disorder and sinful. If an unmarried man commits either an act of fornication or a homosexual act, he has committed grave sins.

Men who present themselves to the Church because they have a call to the priesthood need to know that they are abandoning the culture of death and are going to live in the culture of life. Accepting the responsibility of the gift means that it is to be used as it is intended. The priesthood is a gift of servitude for the Church. A man should be concerned with adopting the image of Jesus in his life as opposed to furthering his own image.

I would encourage people to read the document and think about the issue. Men in the priesthood need to be as faithful to the Church as men who are married to their wives. Living in this faithfulness is not easy in this world and all of us are called to avoid the near occasion of sin.