Catholic Commentary re: McCarrick Doubling Down on Calls to Bar Gays from Priesthood: Why This Red-Herring Solution Is Not a Viable Solution to the Abuse Problem

1) I see Catholic commentators on Twitter saying — all over again —in light of the McCarrick story that the solution to the abuse problem in the church is barring gay men from the priesthood.

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 31, 2018

Here's a Twitter thread I wrote today, that I'd like to share with you in light of my postings yesterday:

2) Screening for sexual orientation and not allowing gay men to be ordained would not have saved the five-year-old girl that my teacher at Loyola University in New Orleans, Father Ben Wren, abused. https://t.co/UwA0NH0pqh

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 31, 2018

3) Screening out gay candidates and permitting heterosexual ones only to be ordained would have meant that an exemplary Jesuit who taught me at that same univeristy and who was, I am certain, gay but celibate, would not have been ordained — while Father Wren was ordained.

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 31, 2018

4) When one of the master architects of the policy of barring gay men from the priesthood — Msgr. Tony Anatrella — has just been relieved of clerical duties after it was found he was abusing men who came to him to be "cured" of homosexuality, something's clearly wrong with the

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 31, 2018

5) bar-the-gays-from-seminaries simplistic solution to the abuse crisis. It's a blame-the-gays strategy that is deeply dishonest and cruel — and it's surprising that Catholics advocating for this position on social media appear not to see this.

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 31, 2018

6) Barring gay men from the priesthood would not have saved the many girls sexually abused by priests, or the nuns who have been sexually assaulted by priests, or the women by whom priests have fathered children they never acknowledge or support.

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 31, 2018

7) The problem in the abuse crisis is NOT sexual orientation. It's abuse of power rooted in a clerical system that gives the ordained well-nigh unlimited power over lay Catholics. Pedophilia and pederasty are not homosexuality or heterosexuality. Homophobia is not a solution

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 31, 2018

8) to the abuse crisis, no matter how tempting it may be because of its doltish simplicity and its alluring, evil promise to allow us to feel righteous about scapegoating a minority group we despise.

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 31, 2018

I find it amazing and touching that P.A. Kane can say the following after Father Ron Silverio sexually abused him and two of his brothers when they were minors. I find it amazing that P.A. Kane can muster compassion, as he says he has done, for Silverio as a gay man, when Silverio sounds like quite a horrible human being. My hat is off to P.A. Kane and his ability to hold onto his own deep heart and humanity in circumstances where I'm not sure I could have done the same. He writes:

As we know, pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder where an adult is sexually attracted to children, whereas gay and lesbian people are sexually attracted to people of the same sex. Yet, there is still a dumb and persistent effort by anti-gay activists to show a link—despite 40 years of research, duplicated dozens times—between homosexuality and abusive pedophilia. Researchers have found showing pictures of young boys to gay men did not arouse them any more than pictures of young girls aroused straight men, meaning gay men are no more attracted to children than straight men. I believe this research to be completely accurate.

On the recent removal of Tony Anatrella from ministry due to his now-proven abuse of young men who came him as a counselor to be "cured" of their homosexuality, see Céline Hoyeau, "French priest-therapist removed from ministry for alleged sexual abuse." On Anatrella's very considerable influence in the Vatican, where he was one of the movers and shakers of the policy barring gay men from the priesthood, see this Wikipedia entry about him, and also click his name in the labels below.

P.S. Yes, I have now told you the name of the Jesuit who taught me, about whom I wrote recently, who is credibly accused of molesting a five-year-old girl. See the Bishop Accountability link provided above for documentation of that sordid story. No point being coy any longer about his name when this information is out there in the public square in this way.