…is the dishonesty. The woman from Dignity who was on the show went through their talking points, which were breathtaking: That the Church has ALWAYS ordained gay men, that there are gay men – no, that’s not what she said. She said – there are LGBT saints. That the Church is still ordaining gay men. But oh, yeah, that they’re being purged. And that this RUMORED DOCUMENT which she has on high authority from Rome will instigate a purge is a BREAK WITH TRADITION!

Of course, in the context of that stream of heady implication, it’s a challenge to insert some honesty. The implication being that the Church’s traditional emphasis on the pursuit of holiness, no matter who you are, is equivalent to the contemporary Western politicized gay agenda. Yeah, that’s it.

It’s also difficult to keep trying to make that distinction, as many others have tried to do over the past weeks, including people like Fr. Neuhaus and Fr. Fessio, that, as Fr. Sweeney so aptly put it, the Church doesn’t divide the world into gay and straight. Those labels are not the Church’s. The Church is about being a disciple, following Christ and listening to his voice, which, Catholics believe, resounds in a context far broader than our own heads and our own desires. If an individual doesn’t live by or believe the teachings of the Church, and is not going to teach them, they should not be a priest. If a person is going to be oriented to the world’s values, and not Christ’s, being a priest would be a problem.

Ah..there’s my new meme. A new way to think about orientation. Not, what’s your sexual orientation…what’s your spiritual orientation? Hmmm.

And if it’s all a big struggle for you, and you can commit, and you don’t know if you can do it, and if you believe that life as a priest would be a temptation  – for any number of reasons, that have a lot more to do with the prestige of the position, the ability to hide one’s actions because of the reverence-soaked gaze of your faithful who see you not as you are, but as they would like you to be, the presence of other politicized agenda-driven men or the presence of an sexually active group, lack of support for living chastely…then you shouldn’t be a priest either. No matter what your temptation is.

This is not rocket science. Nor is it a belief that no man with homosexual activity in his past or inclinations should ever, ever be admitted to Orders (See Michael’s affecting blog entry about an acquaintance of his for more that). I don’t believe that and I, like Fr. Sweeney, do not believe that’s what this document will assert.

But I am so tired of this witch hunt cry. It is so narrow, narcissistic and self-centered. And the justification….dishonest.