Sexual Orientation and Priestly Ministry, by Gene Gomulka
US Bishop: Crisis in Church Gives Catholics ‘Privileged Moment’ to ‘Prove … What We Really Believe’, by Lisa Bourne
September 23, 2019
Msgr. Charles Pope: On the Connection Between Sound Doctrine and Civility
September 23, 2019
By Gene Gomulka, Church Militant, September 21, 2019
God did not make you that way
While visiting patients in the hospital, a priest came across a woman who was hospitalized after having attempted to take her life. The pastoral visit led the woman later to seek out the priest for counseling.
The woman shared with the priest that she became suicidal after she discovered her lesbian partner was cheating on her with another woman. When the priest inquired about her upbringing and background, she related that she had been sexually abused by her stepfather, only later to be befriended and taken in by a lesbian who likewise was abused years earlier by her own father.
Whenever the woman went to confession to confess her lesbian relationship, she said priests said, “God made you that way” and that she should try to lead a loving and generous life. Despite this advice, however, she said she never felt true peace, happiness and love in her life.
On hearing this, the priest told her a story about another priest with whom he was ordained and who was found guilty of abusing teenage boys. He said the predator priest himself was abused as a teenager when he was in the minor seminary.
“Do you think God made him to be sexually attracted to boys?” he asked the woman.
The priest also told her another story about a woman who divorced her physically abusive husband. When a priest counseled the divorced woman in the process of obtaining a decree of nullity (which was granted), the woman pointed out that her former spouse grew up in a broken home following his mother’s divorce from his abusive father.
