Watering Down A Watered Down Statement

Mundabor points out how, when Francis does say something Catholic, the 'Catholic' Press downplays it.

From Mundabor's Blog

The Priesthood is not his place. Says the Pope.

Pope Francis has recently stated, in one of his now largely ignored book-long sermons, that the Church has no place for homosexual priests. This is a weak statement, but it is at least a statement. 

A Pope, seen that he is, actually…. the Pope, should say more about the issue: words like “perversion”, “Satan, “sin crying to heaven for vengeance”, the actual word “sodomy”, and others of the sort would actually be expected to get out of the Papal Mouth. I have no news of any of them. Still, we have something. 

After which, the Catholic press world undermines, or ignores, even this rare outburst of Catholicism. 

“The pope said that a man with an ingrained homosexual tendency “should not be accepted into the ministry or consecrated life” since the priesthood “is not his place” ” means – astonishing as it is that Francis should say that – that the fact that prevents one from being priest is being homosexual, not being an active sodomite. 

The “c”atholic press should be interested in this, a lot. Simply for the fact that, semel in anno, Francis has said something Catholic and countercultural. 

As reported in the linked article, they don’t. Actually, even the one decrying the fact contributes to the problem, as Francis’ words clearly make homosexuality and priesthood incompatible tout court, not merely – as the well paid professional defender of Catholicism summarises it – “when they are more gay than they are priest”. Actually, Francis’ word means, both in themselves and read in light of Catholic doctrine, that no amount of “gayness” whatsoever is compatible with being priest, then 
“in consecrated and priestly life, there’s no room for that kind of affection.”. Francis is here explicitly talking of so-called “same sex attraction”, not merely sodomy. 

This tells me how difficult it is, for any sort of institutionalised press, Catholic or not, to actually cope with Catholicism. A Pope says what is nothing more than a Catholic obviousness, and no one dares to repeat and offer a resonance box to what he has stated; not even those who actually decry the lack of such resonance box. 

This is the state of Catholic affairs in this very sad beginning of the XXI Century. Pope undermines doctrines; on those rare occasions when he doesn’t, others do it for him; Catholic 1-2-1 has now become so radioactive, that the professional press cuts off the part that is most offensive to the world and tries to reduce it to a manageable piece of political incorrectness.  

A priest cannot be a homosexual because homosexuality is a sexual perversion obviously incompatible with the consecrated life. Sodomy is no part of this equation. A homosexual priest has as little business in being a priest than one practising sodomy. Not compatible is not compatible. There is no degree of incompatibility in this simple binary choice, there is no degree of “no” once the answer is “no” in the first place. 

Actually, let me note this: that this abstruse idea that homosexuality be in some way, shape or form compatible with a “chaste” priesthood is what brought us to this situation in the first place. Let that sink in. 

 Catholicism in wonderful, inter alia, also in this way: that it does not allow to water down any part of the doctrine without causing contradictions or damage somewhere else down the line. 

M