Come out at Mass! Or not.

Not much to blog about of late, but a press release titled "Fr. Euteneuer responds to Jesuit who 'came out' at Mass" caught a colleague's attention. Euteneuer is president of Human Life International, which bills itself as "pro-life" missionaries to the world. His "open letter" to Jesuit Thomas Brennan, who came out at a student Mass at St. Joseph University in Philadelphia, carried the usual denunciations of the "unholy desire" Father Brennan acknowledged. (Only Euteneuer's site and Lifesite News covered the incident.)

Ironically enough, I did find myself agreeing with one of Euteneuer's points (though not his constant personal attacks against Brennan):

"Holy Mass is not a forum for your self-expression. You chose the sacred liturgy and the pulpit reserved for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the launching pad for your personal testament to homosexuality ... You've read the same documents I've read about the liturgy, and none of them say the liturgy is your personal stage."

True enough, and it is a criticism that could be leveled equally against priests and homilists of various political persuasions. Though I think it can be appropriate for priests to come out--and thus put the lie to the claim that gay priests are somehow a danger to the church--the liturgy isn't the place. The Christian assembly has other work to do, and it needs its leader to stick to the task at hand.

But I do wonder why two prolife websites are so concerned about a relatively minor incident at a small Catholic college in Pennsylvania. What does a gay priest have to do with abortion or euthanasia?

Blame it on the gays?

In the aftermath of the Monsignor Stenico Vatican sex scandal, the now-expected commentary on homosexuality and/in the Catholic Church is now appearing. Of note is a column by Anglican (I think) priest Martin Reynolds, who lives with his partner and their family in Wales. The heart of his contention is that Stenico represents the double-edged character of the Christianity/homosexuality coin: Gay people (men in particular) are both persecuted and persecutor. A selection from his column in the UK New Statesman:

"The Anglican family of Churches is tottering on its foundations over the place of lesbian and gay people in its hierarchy, divided between those who see homosexuality as an acceptable deviation and no bar to office and those who privately might still enjoy a bonfire or two with gay people as both passive and active participants.

"For let’s be clear gay Christians have not just been the fuel for these bonfires. Homosexual priests, bishops, cardinals, and popes have been amongst the most enthusiastic to set the fires and throw on the victims as an attempt both to disguise and deny their own sexuality. Fr Tommaso’s defense that he met the young gay man "to better understand this mysterious and faraway world which, by the fault of a few people--among them some priests--is doing so much harm to the Church” may be a painful reminder to all of us of this."

I must admit that I have found some of the most violently anti-gay people in Catholicism--both lay and ordained--to at least fit the standard gay stereotypes (on which basis it is, of course, unfair to judge). But there have been no small number of anti-gay Christians who have turned out to be gay themselves, two prominent members of evangelical "ministry" Exodus International (a group that allegedly makes gay people straight in the name of Jesus) being a case in point. (They re-embraced their homosexuality and partnered up.)

With the conflict over homosexuality in the church that complex, no wonder homosexuality has become of late what Rev. Reynolds calls a "first order" truth of Christianity rather than the "third order" issue it probably really is in the grand scheme.

Set-up in the Holy See?

One thing guaranteed to give a story legs: Gay sex in the Vatican. Great, just what the Holy Father needs.

Monsignor Tommaso Stenico, a section head at the Vatican Congregation for Clergy, is the cleric involved, the "victim" of a journalistic sting in which a "young man" secretly filmed Stenico in his office propositioning said "young man" for sex. Reports are a little varied--some say the priest gave an interview in his office with his face and voice disguised, others just that he was secretly filmed. You can read the Guardian's most recent update here. Either way, Stenico has now been suspended from his duties.

This is, of course, another silly distraction, one which the Vatican leaves itself open to by being so vociferous in its opposition to any legal recognition of same-sex couples (as it recently did in Italy) and its absolute condemnation of sex between people of the same gender. Any indiscretion or outright hypocrisy by any individual priest is bound to be news, and Stenico's claim that he was investigating a satanist plot to ensnare priests just makes the whole thing more lurid.

This story is no good for gay folks either. Every time there is another Larry Craig or Monsignor Stenico it just reinforces the following stereotypes: gays are trying to convert your children (it was a young man, after all); gays are so perverse and desperate that they have sex in public restrooms; gay sex is super weird—they’re all into S and M, you know (the Guardian made sure we all know that it was "sado-masochistic sex" Father was looking for).

Sanity, please.