Breakfast at Tiffany's – Because I Do Not Know

Then Who Would Be Left to Lead Mass?

Author, blogger and University of Florida (cough, cough) graduate Wayne Besen takes the Vatican to task in this Gay.com column for the Catholic Church's recent "no gay urges" pronouncement for future priests. (You can read the background and my thoughts in this BaT post from Nov. 22.) Besen calls upon all gay priests currently in the Catholic clergy to leave the church.

From 1965 to 2000, the number of priests in the United States dropped 30 percent; the number of nuns, 54 percent. If every gay priest came out of the closet and left the priesthood, the Vatican would collapse within a week. To remain in the Catholic Church as a gay priest after the release of this document is to be the abused wife that runs back to her husband. It is time to take a strong moral stand and leave an institution that has deemed you unworthy.

If you are a gay priest who sees the church as merely a jobs program, than please stay. But if you have a conscience and care about the church, the gay community and the truth, it is time to leave this increasingly intolerant institution in protest.

To stay is to perpetuate the problem and to be a willing actor in active persecution. It is a betrayal of self and pastoral values. The writing in this document is also the writing on the wall. The Catholic Church has left you. Isn't it time to leave the church?

Such action would certainly lead to an interesting Sunday morning in parishes around the country -- when 90 percent of church members walk in to find themselves priestless.

4 comments Jake McCafferty last posted at 5:06 PM
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4 Comments:

I love how they say that gay is cool, as long as you don't act on it. Well, I don't think that you are really a gay man anymore if you are forbidden from your "urges". that makes it sound like some disease or something. I say leave the church too, they are only going to make it harder on them, and not in the good way. I am believer that if someone or something doesn't accept me, there is only so much I am going to do to try and gain acceptance before I just say fuck it and walk out. There's only so much of a beating you can take, right?!

By Anonymous, at 10:22 PM

Jake, I'm over from Ethan's site, and read this post. I totally agree that if you're a gay priest, now is the time to stand up for yourself. However, you could say that same thing to the rest of the gays in mainstream culture. If every gay person came out of the closet at once, the world would be reeling for generations. The bad thing is, it just isn't happening.
The way I see it, that leaves the rest of us, the vocal minority, to stand up for them.

I often wonder how many more gays are in the closet than are out of it.

FYI, I'm going to borrow your "Vote For Ethan" graphic. If you object, just hop on over to my site and let me know.

By Anonymous, at 9:03 AM

It will be interesting to see the changes to the face f the Church in the coming years. There is a sea change coming and it ain't gonna be no Vatican III.

By Jay Six, at 11:20 PM

As a former Catholic,this is just so
typical of why many people have left the church and the reason more will avoid them like the plague.

Why doesn't the Vatican get rid of the
pedophile priests..oh,wait they think
they're doing just that! So damn ignorant...didn't anyone in the higher echleons watch that Diff'rent Strokes
episode that explained the difference?

By lady t, at 6:43 AM