Catholic bishops say gays are welcome in the church as long as they remain celibate

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/Catholic_bishops_say_gays_should_remain_celibate.html?siteSect=143&sid=7257289&cKey=1163541198000

Catholic bishops say gays should remain celibate

BALTIMORE (Reuters) - U.S. Catholic bishops said on Tuesday that gay men and women should be welcomed in the church but that those who engage in same-sex activity should not receive Communion.

Guidelines adopted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops encouraged gays and lesbians to participate in the church while reaffirming long-standing doctrine that gay sex is form of "moral disorder."

"Because homosexual acts cannot fulfill the natural end of human sexuality they are never morally acceptable," said Bishop Arthur Serratelli, who headed the committee that crafted the guidelines. "Such acts furthermore do not lead to true human happiness."

The head of a group of gay Catholics said the new policy would only drive gays and lesbians further from the church

[donco6]

1. So, gays are welcome as long as they're straight?

I think I'll just not bother.

[eallen]

2. They think unmarried heterosexuals should remain celibate, also.

I don't see this as a particularly political issue. All sorts of religions have all sorts of crazy beliefs. It becomes a political issue only when Catholics try to shape civil law to fit their peculiar moral outlook.

[gollygee]

3. So they're allowed in the club so long as they promise to be miserable

and lonely for the rest of their lives.

That's very kind and charitable of US Catholic bishops.

[dsc]

4. I am so fed up with this crap

It is hard not to just want to scream at these hypocritical bastards. They give communion to their priests who raped children but not to gays in adult, conscentual relationships. They can go straight to Hell.

[Book Lover]

5. I almost don't mind him saying that gays should be celibate. But what I will not tolerate

is when a person who not only has not been involved in sustaining a multi-year emotional, loving, responsibility-laden relationship, but who has sworn a vow not to, tells those of us either in or contemplating those relationships how we should go about it. Why don't you try doing someone else's laundry/cooking their meals/caring for them when ill and all yucky/supporting them after they get fired/putting up with their awful relatives for 20-some years? Then you can get back to me with how the ultimate intimate act between two members of a loving couple who share the same biology doesn't make them happy.

[tomreedtoon]

6. As celebate as, say, Catholic priests?

As a former Catholic - not a "lapsed" but a "collapsed" Catholic - I can't help but shrug.

[MADem]

7. Ah, so how would they know? Will they install Catholic video cameras in gay bedrooms?

Rely on confession, or someone "ratting them out?"

I mean, after all, don't tell me that the prohibitions on use of birth control are still exercised. Should the priests cast a jaundiced eye on any couple married more than four years with "ONLY" two children??? Hell no...they take their money and ignore the damned obvious. And clearly, anyone practicing birth control certainly isn't fulfilling that 'natural end of human sexuality' are they? And let's not even DISCUSS the couples who stay technically true to their prohibition against birth control, but indulge in other activities that aren't church-sanctioned!

Eh, screw them, gay gentlemen may as well picket the churches with a sign saying "I can't receive communion because I slept with a bishop--Go figure!!!..."

It'll certainly get them all in a swivet. And a swivet is what they need. They are simply not being rational WRT this issue. But then, I doubt they will be, at least in the near term. They are slow as molasses when it comes to change.

[enid602]

8. abstinence

Recent bumber sticker:"Abstinence makes the church grow fondlers."

[flordehinojos]

9. do most priests remain celibate?

[TexasProgresive]

10. I don thin celibate means what you think it does

It means unmarried- What they said is that they would have to be chaste not celibate.