During Pope Francis’ trip to Brazil for World Youth Day, he spoke about materialism for one straight week before millions, and his formal comments garnered 74 news stories on Lexis-Nexis. He spoke off-the-cuff about homosexual priests before a handful of reporters on the airplane going back to Rome and his remarks triggered 220 news stories. One might logically conclude that the pope broke some new ground with his comments on gay priests. But he didn’t.
When asked about homosexual priests, Pope Francis said, “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?” He added, “The problem is not having this orientation. We must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by this orientation….”
Pope Benedict XVI, responding to the homosexual scandal in the Catholic Church (one more time—less than 5 percent of the cases of priestly sexual abuse involved pedophilia), did not make it impossible for gays to enter the priesthood; he made it more difficult for practicing gays to enter. Pope Francis said nothing to contradict his predecessor. By addressing the gay lobby, he clearly spoke out against what the late Father Andrew Greeley called the “lavender mafia.”
Several years ago, Bill Donohue was interviewed by David France for his book, Our Fathers, about gays in the Catholic Church. Donohue said: “I don’t think most Catholics would care if their priest is gay or straight, to tell the truth. I think the issue for them is whether he can live up to his vow of celibacy. I’d take a chaste gay priest any day over a promiscuous straight one.”
France was ecstatic, much as reporters were with the pope. In both instances, their eudemonia is a reflection of the way they stereotype orthodox Catholics.
