Another Neocon Is Pleased With the Document on Homosexuals In the Seminaries
In our February 2006 Editorial, we expressed our dissatisfaction with the new document on homosexuals in the seminary. We said it will change nothing about homosexuals being accepted into the seminaries, because it has no teeth.
We also told you about two neoconservatives who were pleased with the document. William Donohue of the Catholic League said: “The Vatican is prudent not to have an absolute ban on admission of homosexuals to the priesthood….” Brian Saint-Paul, the new Editor of Crisis, said: “The Vatican has made a wise decision to come down in the middle of the road on this dispute.”
Recently, another neocon, Robert Royal, said he’s content with the document — he said this in his regular column in the dissenting National Catholic Reporter (Feb. 24). The document on homosexuals in the seminaries, which was signed by Pope Benedict XVI, is not a matter of doctrine or morals; it is a matter of discipline, or as we call it, ill-discipline. Said Royal: “Unlike the conservative critics who are now beginning to fear that he [Papa Ratzinger] will be too soft…I have greater confidence in Papa Ratzinger the man…. I’m inclined to trust his judgement [in the document on homosexuals in the seminaries].” Royal is also pleased that Papa Ratzinger is not a “conservative monster.”
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