[Mb-civic] A church confused over sexual issues - Bernadette J. Brooten - Boston Globe Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

  A church confused over sexual issues

By Bernadette J. Brooten  |  November 30, 2005  |  The Boston Globe

IF THE VATICAN aims to prevent clergy sexual abuse by barring gay men 
from the priesthood, it is profoundly misguided. Most strikingly, the 
latest Vatican statement doesn't ever name clergy sexual abuse as a 
problem. Instead, the Vatican refers ever so obliquely to the 
''contemporary world," which must mean ''a world in which even priests 
have sex with boys."

The Vatican needs to address head-on the dual problem of priests abusing 
their power and their bishops protecting them. Otherwise, Catholics and 
non-Catholics will live with shaken confidence in the Roman Catholic 
Church, an important social institution by any measure. This document 
diverts attention away from Catholic bishops who have worked mightily to 
avoid just settlements with sexual abuse survivors, to open their 
financial records, or to include clergy as mandated reporters of child 
sexual abuse.

By defining homosexuality as the problem, the Vatican also masks the 
fact that numerous priests have had, and are having, sexual relations 
with adult women. Unlike therapists or physicians, priests are not 
usually legally prohibited from having sexual relations with the women 
whom they counsel. Women whose trust priests have betrayed have rarely 
been able to sue for damages, and the media have therefore seldom 
reported their stories.

Instead of facing up to these urgent problems in the church, the 
statement bars all men ''who practice homosexuality, show profoundly 
deep-rooted homosexual tendencies, or support so-called gay culture" 
from seminary and the priesthood. As theological justification, the 
Vatican explains that a priest must ''represent Christ, head, shepherd, 
and bridegroom of the church." Christ's maleness is the same reason the 
Vatican excludes women from the priesthood, although in church history, 
canon lawyers more candidly explained that women are simply inferior.

Now we see that being a man alone isn't enough. The priest also has to 
be a real man. He has to be heterosexual in order to function as a head 
of the congregation and as a bridegroom of the church. Yes, heterosexual 
and male, but also celibate, while living with other male priests -- a 
tall order. In a new theological twist, Jesus was not only celibate but 
also heterosexual.

Even as the Vatican is puzzling out the finer details of theological 
symbolism, US Catholics face new disappointments each year. The head of 
the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop William S. Skylstad of 
Spokane, Wash., a diocese that had sought bankruptcy protection, is 
appealing the judge's ruling that church property ''can be sold to pay 
claims filed by victims." Skylstad argues that the bishop doesn't own 
these church properties, the parishes do. Meanwhile, in Boston, 
Catholics have held vigils to prevent the archbishop from selling off 
their churches. Archbishop O'Malley argues that the archbishop owns 
these churches, not the parishes.

The most heartening sign on the horizon is that US Catholics 
increasingly see sexual abuse as the problem, not sexual orientation. 
Both in the courts and in the court of public opinion, Catholics are 
calling their church to accountability. More and more Catholics support 
the abuse survivors, want a say in whether their parishes and schools 
will stay open, and want sexual ethics based on meaningful consent and 
mutuality.

Bernadette J. Brooten is professor of Christian studies at Brandeis 
University and the director of the Feminist Sexual Ethics Project.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/11/30/a_church_confused_over_sexual_issues/
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