Dr. James Hitchcock: New Instructions from Vatican Are Welcome

Contrasted with the banshee-like cries of some and the wailing and gnashing of teeth of others, there are still many voices of reason and rational thinking:

New instructions from the Holy See concerning homosexuals in the priesthood have been dismissed by some people as irrelevant ("they change nothing") and criticized by others as repressive. I think that, if implemented, they will have a greatly beneficial effect.

The obvious starting point, which many of the critics do not acknowledge, is the simple fact that the Church has always taught that homosexual activity is a sinful disorder and that no one can legitimately engage in it. Many homosexuals openly reject that teaching and live in defiance of it. The only thing they want from the Church is a stamp of approval, a kind of official apology. The dominant homosexual ideology rejects all attempts to distinguish homosexual orientation from homosexual activity, on the grounds that to suppress such activity would be unnatural, perhaps even impossible.

Homosexuals point out that all priests, indeed all unmarried persons, must be celibate, but there is a difference. Heterosexual priests give up something that the Church holds to be a tremendous good — marriage — in order to live entirely for the kingdom of heaven, whereas homosexuals give up something intrinsically disordered. Priests can be granted permission to marry, but no one can be granted permission to live an active homosexual life.

Homosexuals do have gifts to bring to the priesthood, but their sexual orientation is not one of them and is in fact an obstacle to overcome, as all of us have to fight against our temptations. It would be quite bizarre if an avaricious priest boasted that his greed was a "gift" that he brought to his ministry. Homosexuality is perhaps the only sin whose practitioners are organized and boast publicly of their activity. Imagine, for example, a group demanding moral acceptance for adulterers or embezzlers.

It's probably coming sooner than we expect...

Anyway continued here.