Gay Clergy and Cardinal O'Brien

Just before Pope Emeritis Benedict XVI's abdication came into effect, a story of sexual impropriety by one of the world's cardinals hit the news. Scottish Cardinal O'Brien, named Stonewall's "Bigot of the Year", was accused by three priests and an ex-priest of inappropriate approaches and drunken fumblings. This story immediately captured the attention of many of those who believe there is nothing wrong with homosexual conduct, unless they can show someone up to be a hypocrite, and then that person's homosexuality is ignored and their hypocrisy made crime of the hour.

The above cartoon by anti-Catholic Tom Scott in today's Dominion Post illustrates this disconnect with reality perfectly.

I would have though that given Cardinal O'Brien's call for priests to be able to marry, that he would be the perfect Catholic poster man for gay marriage, and especially gay priests being able to marry other gay priests. But, no, nary a word in this direction from the die-hard "Marriage Equality" supporters.

Who are the real hypocrites here? Cardinal O'Brien, who clearly has homosexual tendencies and should never have become a priest, or those who believe homosexuality is natural and should be celebrated and want same-sex couples to be able to marry? Yet, when an obviously gay Cardinal is outed, attack him vociferously for his past dalliances that they would not consider in the slightest bit unseemly given that only adults were involved.

There certainly is a problem in the Catholic clergy of men with same-sex attraction and worse, active gay lifestyles. I do not deny this. Pope Emeritis Benedict XVI was very aware of this as well, that is why directives to not allow those with deep seated homosexual tendencies into seminaries to study for the priesthood were reiterated numerous times. That is also why the seminaries in the United States as to how closely they followed these directives were looked into by the Vatican.

We do have a problem. And those who believe that there is nothing wrong with gay priests should really consider that if they are on the condemnation of Cardinal O'Brien bandwagon in order to attack the Catholic Church, that they are being inconsistent and hypocritical in their stance. Either what he did was perfectly fine because there is nothing wrong with homosexuality and Catholic priests shouldn't be expected to be celibate or it's wrong because there should be no gay Catholic clergy because there is too much temptation for them in an all-male priesthood.

Related link:
Cardinal O'Brien's confession turns spotlight on Scottish Catholic church
Admission of sexual misconduct exposes former head cleric and church to claims of hypocrisy especially over gay rights