“A Defence of why the Catholic Church teaches that Men with Homosexual Tendencies are unsuitable for Priesthood”.
PAT SAYS
I promised that I would read this booklet and summarise it on the blog.
IMPORTANT QUOTES FROM MARSDEN
“We are created and drawn into this life (God’s) through two distinct modes of being. The identity of fatherhood defines a man as motherhood defines a woman” p 1
“Rebellion against against our own gifted ness as Mothers and Fathers is to refuse the authority of God our heavenly Father”. p 1
….what has changed is the way a significant section of the psychological world evaluates homosexuality. This shift has been brought about exclusively by a crusade of strategic lobbying and political agendas” p 17
“Yet despite decases of militant activism, endless campaigns and celebrity endorsements, one fact remains remarkably unchanged, “no theorist has yet presented a credible model of non-traumatic early development that would result in homosexuality”. p 18
“…….homosexual desires (are) the result of a psychological or emotional wound that impedes the developmental maturation of the individual into adulthood”. p 18
“Dr Elizabeth Moberley …early 1980s – ..she identified a rupture in the normal attachment process of a child with their same sex parent due to a perceived deficit of that parent’s nurturing role”. p 18
“The neurotic nature of homosexual relationships manifests itself due to each partner seeking to heal psychological wounds”. p 24
“Candidates who have a sibling with same sex attraction who is actively campaigning for the rights of homosexuals ……raises a red flag as regards the candidate’s suitability for Holy Orders”. p 33
HOMOHERESY
“….an initial homoclique can become a homolobby then strengthen into a homomafia”. p 39
ATTACK ON FATHERHOOD
“Satan’s primary strategy is to damage and abolish human fatherhood”. p 44
MASS FACING THE PEOPLE – ATTACK ON PRIEST AS FATHER
Quoting a Father Cipolla
“One one of my many stats in Italy I noticed that many of the baby strollers were built such that the baby sat in his seat and faced the mother who was pushing the stroller”. p45
“I would attest that the radical innovation, never mandated by the Council or any liturgical book, of celebrating Mass with the priest facing the people, has transformed the priest’s role at the Mass from Father who leads his people to offer Sacrifice to the Father to the mother whose eye contact and liturgical patter banter with the people whose sometimes deliberately silly behaviour, as if the people are infants, reduces his role as a priest to the mother of the infant”. p 45
MASCULINE THEOLOGY
“If the Catholuc faith is to re revitalised it will need the priesthood to regain its proper sense of paternal authority.
“The task of acquiring effective maturity for the seminarian requires an increased emotional vocabulary the honing of relational skills and the ability to build collaboratively, but priests are first and foremost men”. p 46
PRIEST AS FATHER
“Priesthood is intrinsically bound to fatherhood in that their modes of being are almost identical”
“The very essence of Hod as father is symbolised in the malness of the priest at the altar” p 47
PAT SAYS
I do point out that I am only publishing parts of Fr Marsden’s book. There is the argument that the full booklet must be read to give everything the proper context.
He certainly sets out his stall with conviction.
But is his conviction based on sound science or has he allowed very right wing RC teaching to pollute his science?
Can we regard God as purely MALE?
Is not God ultimate oneness and ultimate diversity. Can God be squeezed into absolutely into only MALENESS and FATHERHOOD?
Is Marsden not implying that you cannot be a real man if you are not fathering?
I think that his contention that homosexuality is a woundedness based on childhood trauma and a bad father is extremely controversial and unscientific.
Are all homosexual neurotic – and more neurotic than heterosexuals?
I agree with him that the RCC has progressed from HOMOCLIQUE to HOMOLOBBY TO HOMOMAFIA.
The bit about Mass facing the people sounds psychobabble.
Are priests first and foremost men? Are they not first and foremost human beings?
I imagine very few psychological scientists would agree with Marsden.
I imagine very few theologians would either.
If I had a seminary would I put him in charge of it?
No!
I do not accept, generally, his theology and psychology.
TODAY – THE 44TH ANNIVERSARY OF MY ORDINATION.
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 