Why I Thank God I Couldn’t Be A Priest

Some excerpts from a very good commentary:

SCOTT McDERMOTT National Catholic Register

The Vatican’s new document on the ordination of homosexuals brings it all back.

I sat in the mental hospital for five days, reading Trollope, watching the Nagano Olympics, giving God an earful.

Why me, Lord? Why, when all I wanted was to serve God as his priest?

My desire for priesthood was born out of gratitude for my deliverance from the homosexual lifestyle and from my history of depression. Since my conversion to the Catholic faith in 1992, I had functioned for five years without anti-depressants, and I thought I had mastered my same-sex attractions sufficiently to manage as a priest.

My therapist knew I wasn’t ready. I didn’t listen, and unfortunately, the religious community that had accepted me to its novitiate didn’t ask for extensive psychological documentation. Nor did the vocation director probe my struggles with homosexuality and depression in any detail.
. . .
In the debate over the recent Vatican instruction on homosexual candidates for priesthood, many writers have already discussed the need for priests to have a healthy masculinity...But the issue is broader than sexual identity.

Many scientific studies have shown that homosexuals have a much higher incidence of clinical depression, suicidal tendencies, and drug and alcohol addiction than the general public. Scholarly articles proving this point are simply too numerous to list here. In fact, the scientific literature is completely unequivocal on this point.
. . .
In our culture, we have developed the absurd habit of seeing vocation in terms of rights. But “equality before the law” does not mean that everyone is equally capable of fulfilling every role in our society. The priesthood is not an entitlement, it is a calling; God gives some men, and not others, the requisite gifts to live out the priesthood.
. . .
Since my collapse, which was really a conversion experience, I have often reflected on one of the lesser-known sayings of Jesus. “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build, and was not able to finish’ (Luke 14:28-30).”

I wish I had pondered those words before I began my misguided request for priesthood. And I wish that the instruction on vocations with respect to homosexuality had come out sooner. Thank God we have it now. It will be remembered as one of the most compassionate acts of a merciful pontificate.(emphasis added)

It [the recent Instruction] will be remembered as one of the most compassionate acts of a merciful pontificate. This is worth repeating again and again!

A compelling article with a wonderfully proclaimed truth. We must remember that there is no compassion or love in the act of confirming others in their sins. True love desires that we assist others in getting to heaven..,

The complete article (and well worth the time to read) is here.