NYT/Reuters: Catholic Bishops Tell Gays to Remain Celibate

[DeepModem Mom]

Catholic Bishops Tell Gays to Remain Celibate
By REUTERS
Published: November 14, 2006

BALTIMORE (Reuters) - U.S. Catholic bishops said on Tuesday that gay men and women should be welcomed in the church but that those who engage in homosexual activity should not receive Communion.

Guidelines adopted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops encouraged gays and lesbians to participate in the church, while reaffirming long-standing church doctrine that same-sex activity, as with any extramarital sex, is inherently sinful.

"Because homosexual acts cannot fulfill the natural end of human sexuality they are never morally acceptable,'' said Bishop Arthur Serratelli, who headed the committee that crafted the guidelines. "Such act furthermore do not lead to true human happiness.''...

The new guidelines acknowledge that gays and lesbians do not choose their sexual orientation and say that homosexual ''inclinations'' are not in themselves sinful.

But those who feel such inclinations should remain celibate and should not tell anybody other than close friends and family about them, the document says....

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-religion-gays.html

[peacebird]

1. I guess the priests figure if THEY can't get laid, why should gays?

:eyes:

[Anakin Skywalker]

20. Yeah! Gotta Ruin the Fun For Others Too, Ya Know?

[zreosumgame]

2. so they are saying GAWD makes mistakes?

and that they know better then the GAWD they pay lip-service to?

[Zenlitened]

3. Here's the NYT-authored version, with more quotes from DignityUSA:

Bishops Back Guidelines Urging Gay Celibacy

By NEELA BANERJEE, New York Times

Published: November 14, 2006

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 —The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops voted overwhelmingly today to support initiatives based on traditional teachings that call for gay and lesbian Catholics to remain celibate and for married Catholics to reject artificial contraception.

At a semi-annual meeting in Baltimore, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to adopt guidelines aimed at clergy members and others who provide pastoral care to gay men and lesbians.

The guidelines welcome gay people, but they also affirm church teachings that “homosexual inclinations” are inherently disordered. While having such inclinations is not sinful, gay sexual activity is, according to the core teachings. The guidelines, called “Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination,” passed by a vote of 194 to 37. They also speak out against same-sex marriage and adoptions by gay men and lesbians.

DignityUSA, an advocacy group for gay Catholics, said the new guidelines would further alienate gay people from the church. Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of Paterson, N.J., chairman of the doctrine committee, which developed the guidelines, acknowledged Monday that the committee did not consult with gay men and lesbians on the document.

“It’s really disappointing,” Sam Sinnett, president of DignityUSA, said of the new guidelines. “At some point, the bishops have to realize that they speak in willful ignorance about what homosexuality is and about sexuality in general. They have to decide if they are moral teachers or simply employees of the Vatican.”

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/14/us/14cnd-bishops.html?hp&ex=1163566800&en=dad787c3a5f28d80&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Thanks, zenlitened!

[gratuitous]

5. Celibate just like priests?

Wait, maybe that's not what they mean.

And let me just voice an incredibly heretical point of view. In Genesis, God is reported to have said to Adam and Eve "be fruitful and multiply." I think at this point, God might reasonably say, "Stop." Too much of anything puts nature out of balance, and we've got too many people on the planet right now. Unrestrained reproduction is no longer a responsible course to take.

As for what the "natural end of human sexuality" is, who is to say definitively? Maybe it really is just for the pleasure it produces. Offspring may just be a happy coincidence. I am also unaware of any objective method for measuring "true human happiness." When my friends Jim and Joe had their covenanting ceremony a couple of months ago, they sure looked, acted, and sounded happy, as happy as any couple I've ever seen. Is there some special Vatican happiometer that would have registered a zero for their "true" happiness?

Maybe the Vatican would be better served to make pronouncements about stuff Jesus actually talked about, like feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, clothing the naked and visiting the sick and imprisoned? Seems to me humanity would be much happier if we addressed ourselves to remedying those problems rather than being quite so preoccupied with other matters.

[darkism]

6. New hed: Priests to gays: "Oh kettle, you're so black!" n/t

[mcscajun]

7. "...should remain celibate and should not tell anybody other than close friends and family..."

So, our gay Catholic friends should just stay in the closet and remain celibate; now there's something they've been Waiting to Hear from the Vatican. :sarcasm:

Why'd they even bother to say Anything? :banghead:

[JerseygirlCT]

15. Well, yes, and stop bothering us with all that icky

homosexual stuff don't you know?

Ignore it and we can pretend it's gone away.

:sarcasm:

[Zenlitened]

35. I know, isn't that just a sick and bizarre thing to say?

"Be ashamed of yourself. Live a lie that eats away at you like a cancer, robbing you of the possibility for even a moment of real joy. Deny your own humanity as a sexual being. And Jeebus will love you."

Vile. Just truly vile stuff.

Another moral evil perpetrated by the "religious." :cry:

[TlalocW]

8. Oklahoma Straight Liberal points out that the Catholic Church

Has long given up any moral authority it's had and should shut the fuck up.

TlalocW

[customerserviceguy]

22. I'm frankly surprised

that any self-respecting gay or lesbian person would even want to be Catholic. I call myself a "recovered Catholic". Let weak minds keep their guilt trips.

[closeupready]

29. I don't have any guilt about engaging in gay sex.

I enjoy it. If the church wants to excommunicate me for that, well, then, I guess that's the way it's gonna have to be, because I have no intention of ever giving that up. Furthermore, I think the RCC is wrong on their whole approach to sexuality. Why did God create sexuality? God is not cruel and did not want people to suffer. Additionally, this teaching is not one of those infallible principles, as far as I know.

It's important to recognize that this represents a slight shift in stance. Not far enough, obviously.

[jpwhite]

30. good to hear from another okie

I agree that the catholic church has lost it's moral authority. They just don't get it. If you supress human sexuality then you are going to have a ton of problems. Human beings were made to have sex. A lot of what is now in the bible was added to control people. It was good to hear from another okie!!

James
[e-mail]

ps. GO POKES!! BEAT TECH!!

[HockeyMom]

9. Nobody's going to be at communion

if they are having sex, unless they are straight, married, and not using birth control.

Leaves a lot of people out, doesn't it?

[yellowcanine]

16. Just have to make sure you take time to hit the confessional between any illicit sex

and communion. Then it's ok.

[hedgehog]

32. I wonder if that pronouncement was their way of saying they're

mouthing the Vatican line but they don't really mean it. Any attempt to ban Catholics who use birth control from Communion is a sure fire way to empty the churches. On the other hand, with very few Catholics left, no more shortage of priests!

[superconnected]

10. Same thing they tell the unmarried straights.

[Hand]

34. And likely to be about as successful! nt

[Name removed]

11. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Ilsa]

12. "...the natural end of human sexuality ..."

And what would that be? What about those who are infertile or sterile? Or too old to procreate? What do the bishops say about them?

[IndianaGreen]

13. Back into the closet... don't tell anyone how you feel!

As zreosumgame posted on this thread:

so they are saying GAWD makes mistakes? and that they know better then the GAWD they pay lip-service to?

[xchrom]

14. and the lunacy of the catholic church takes even more

twisted turns.

[crim son]

17. I know a fair number of gay catholics, some of whom

have lifelong partners and children, who are going to be taken aback by this pronouncement. Why, I don't know. The Catholic position on homosexuality has always been pretty transparent to me.

[davidinalameda]

18. I don't understand how someone can be gay and Catholic

why belong to a church that says you're a sinner?

there are plenty of other accepting churches (the Episcopal Church for the most part) out there

[crim son]

19. Then you don't understand what it means to be Catholic, period.

You either love the Church, or you dislike Her intensely. I fall into the latter category, having been raised (haphazardly) as a Catholic, but discovering by my mid-twenties a love of history and a concurrent horror of the Catholic Church and its offshoots. At one time people were willing to die to defend their religion. Catholics especially.

[customerserviceguy]

23. I've found

that with the exception of the Amish (and a few like-minded sects) that people who are willing to die for their religion, are even more willing to kill for it.

[davidinalameda]

24. I was raised Catholic

I understand exactly what it means to be Catholic

I also understand that I don't have a place in the Catholic Church because the Church has decided that I'm somehow evil or whatever the term is that they're using to describe gays now

[crim son]

25. Then you are one of the enlightened.

What are your feelings about the Church, then? I'm curious.

[arewenotdemo]

21. precisely

[LeftHander]

26. Gays tell Catholic Bishops to remain celibate....

Stop molesting alter boys...

[saigon68]

33. The priests must zip their flys

When children are present

[Katzenjammer]

27. "Bring your money, but not your selfhood" (nt)

[GliderGuider]

28. "Abstinence Makes the Church Grow Fondlers"

One of my favourtite recent bumper stickers posted on DU.

[JudyM]

31. What do they know about what "leads to true human happiness?!" n/t