Wednesday, June 14, 2006
THE RITE OF SODOMY
A reader sent in a link to John Vennari's interview of Randy Engel in anticipation of her soon to be released book The Rite of Sodomy: Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church. The book is 1,318 pages with 4,523 endnotes, and has been a work in progress for 17 years. Just the interview alone is quite stunning. She does not hesitate to place the blame for our mess at the very top:
JV: Randy, many of the themes and incidents recorded in your book such as, the Bernardin legacy, New Ways Minis-try and St. Sebastian’s Angels occurred under Pope John Paul II’s 26-year watch. How can this possibly square with the current call for John Paul II’s beatification?
RE: It can’t.
JV: What is your opinion of the latest Vatican document on the admittance of homosexuals to the seminary that was issued by the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education on November 29, 2005 after being approved by Pope Benedict XVI?
RE: It is the latest in a long line of ambiguous and toothless documents emanating from the Vatican on the subject of the ordination of homosexual men and of the problem of homosexuality in the Catholic priesthood and religious life, in general. Clearly, the new document does not affirm the absolute ban against ordaining homosexuals, pederasts and habituated onanists found in the 1961 Instruction “Careful Selection And Training Of Candidates For The States Of Perfection And Sacred Orders.” In fact, the 1961 Instruction did not even merit a footnote in the new directive.
I thought it significant that Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, Prefect for the Congregation, went out of his way to state that the norms expressed in the document do not apply to already ordained homosexual priests, which is a backhanded way of saying that Pope Benedict XVI, like his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, has no immediate plans to clean house and mount a serious attack on the Homosexual Collective within the Roman Catholic priesthood and religious life.
That prompts the question I have been wanting to ask for a few years now, but never had the guts to ask in a blog...was John Paul II a homosexual? And the question that follows naturally, is Benedict?
As the old saying goes, if you're not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Certainly both of these men had the requisite power to clean up the mess. John Paul II would not touch it, and spent as much time as he could basking in the attention of the youth. Benedict seems to be following in his footsteps. That, to me, indicates there is a hidden problem, especially when coupled with lack of attention to heresy within the Church.
Take the time to read the whole interview. It may not be available for very long. I understand the site doesn't archive.
