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Don't Ban Gays from Priesthood, Ban Homophobes Says Former Catholic Leader

By Hilary White and John-Henry Westen

LONDON, November 8, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Rev. Timothy Radcliffe, who headed one of the largest religious orders within the Catholic Church from 1992 to 2001, has slammed any suggestion of barring homosexuals from the priesthood, and suggests further that those who would ban homosexuals from the priesthood should themselves be banned from the priesthood. 

An Englishman and former Master General or international head of the Order of Friars Preachers - commonly known as the Dominican Order - Radcliffe has written a letter to the London Times saying, "A document from the Vatican on the admission of seminarians is expected soon but we do not as yet know its contents. If it were to contain such a ban (on men inclined to homosexuality), which is highly unlikely, most Catholics, at least in the West, would find it unacceptable."

Most revealing is Radcliffe's assertion that homosexuality should not bar men from the priesthood but what he calls "homophobia" should.  "Any deep-rooted prejudice against others, such as homophobia or misogyny, would be grounds for rejecting a candidate for the priesthood, but not their sexual orientation."

The 2002 book, Good Bye Good Men, by Michael Rose revealed that homosexuals and their radical feminist supporters in seminaries and chancery offices have created a "lavender mafia" or homosexual underground. For many years in many seminaries, reported Rose, only those sympathetic to the cause of the sexual revolution, made it past these gatekeepers. Those men who applied to seminaries who upheld the teachings of the Catholic religion - especially believing homosexual acts are gravely sinful and the homosexual inclination is intrinsically disordered - were systematically excluded.

In his letter, Radcliffe refers to the expected, and much delayed, Vatican document on the ordination of those with strong homosexual tendencies. He says that the assertion that the document will ban homosexuals whether chaste or not from ordination is "untrue." (see the letter in the Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,59-1851646,00.html )  However, as re-affirmed in 1961, the Catholic Church's official disciplines have strictly forbidden the ordination of homosexuals, whether 'active and open' or otherwise. (see related LifeSiteNews.com coverage: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/nov/05110402.html )

 

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