The problem of Effeminate Men, Priests, and Parishes – Part 3

Too many Catholic priests are either homosexual or have bought into the homosexual-affirming ideology.  By either engaging in or endorsing this moral disorder, they are acting contrary to God and are scandalously undermining the Church.

Clergy who misinterpret Catholicism’s truths regarding sexuality and who inject sacrilegious poison into their congregations are both blaspheming God and spreading heresy. Sadly, in every diocese in America you will find a few or a few dozen of these wayward men of the cloth.

This final article of the three-part series examines the elephant in the room. In the priesthood there are an abundant number of either homosexual men or heterosexuals who lobby for the acceptance of homosexuality.

The Church Has Failed to Solely Employ Masculine Clergy

A wife and kids expect the man of the household to model toughness, courage, and fortitude. Similarly, a Catholic layperson – especially a male parishioner – looks to men of the cloth to model these same masculine virtues. Catholics expect our shepherds to defend the weak, fight the wolves in a hostile world, and be prepared to lay down their lives if necessary.

A parish’s people wander into sin and distance themselves from God when their leader refuses to boldly preach the truth from the pulpit. Men in particular need confident, courageous, masculine priests to spiritually feed them. When the fullness of Catholic truth is imparted to adult males, they can better answer the call to become the committed, spiritual leaders of their families.

What we have witnessed since the 1970s in the Catholic Church is the opposite. Too many of those who have chosen to serve in the person of Christ have not been acting at all like Jesus. A lot of today’s clergy, as compared to clergy from a century or more ago, give off more effeminate than masculine vibes. They convey a sense of being unmanly in their speech and mannerisms. They are unable to exemplify through their actions observable masculine virtues such as fortitude and valiant leadership.

One can simply look at how almost all bishops and pastors responded in 2020. They locked their churches in fear of a virus and were afraid to come out of hiding to administer sacraments or celebrate the Mass. Instead of showing defiant headship, they conceded all authority to government officials.

Many priests are not comfortable being masculine, gutsy, and defiant. They are more comfortable making soft pleas for people to be kind than making hard appeals for people to step up, speak out, and push against society’s corruption.

A Large Number of Catholic Priests Are Homosexuals

The percentage of Americans who consider themselves something other than heterosexual has more than doubled in the past ten years. Similar to how there has been an increased homosexualization of the culture, Catholic Church hierarchy has also become homosexualized.

Sociologists in various reports have put the number of homosexual priests throughout the Catholic Church  as high as 60%.  The 2000 book, “The Changing Face of the Priesthood”, suggested that the priesthood had become a so-called gay profession with about 60% of priests being homosexuals. While the 2013 book, “Hidden Voices: Reflections of a Gay, Catholic Priest,” suggests that when dividing the type of priests, “30% are gay, 30% are straight, and 30% are in denial.”

Then we have journalist Frederic Martel’s findings. He interviewed 1,500 bishops, priests, papal officials, and seminarians in Rome and concluded in his book, “In the Closet of the Vatican,” that about 80% of the Catholic clergy ministering in and around the Vatican are homosexuals.

More disturbing are the conclusions from the 2004 John Jay College of Criminal Justice study of sex-abuse complaints. In more than 5,000 incidents of priests accused of sexual abuse, 81% involved priests with young male victims. Of the young male victims, 90% were teenage boys. The report noted that there are priests who are undoubtedly “motivated by pathological disorders such as pedophilia.”

There Exists a Powerful, Underground Homosexual Network

The culture so immensely accepts homosexuality these days that they throw parades to celebrate the disorder. In the Church, the acceptance of sexual appetites has not been as showy. Instead, a type of homosexual-priest-underground has risen. Nicknamed “the gay mafia” or “the lavender mafia,” this priest underground has been identified by many sources:

• “The Two Hands of the Lavender Mafia“
• “Swiss Guard Veteran Claims Existence of ‘Gay Network’ at the Vatican“
• “Gay Mafia Blamed for Papal Resignation“
• “Catholic Expert Details Huge Homosexual Underground in the Church“

This forceful, covert group of homosexual priests and bishops have the power to make major decisions, proclamations, and appointments in the Catholic Church. The mentality of “the lavender mafia” is why seminaries in charge of educating new priests often permeate a feminine environment and admit self-proclaimed homosexuals.

What do you get when you combine a predatory bishop as a seminary’s supervisor, predatory professors as a seminary’s mentors, and deliberately seductive, homosexual candidates as the seminarians’ classmates? You create a type of “gay-boys’ club” that mentors vulnerable seminarians.

There has been a history of some dioceses and religious orders improperly forming new priests. The seminaries’ instructors chosen to teach, form, and influence future priests often exhibit effeminate qualities and/or do not recognize effeminacy as a concerning formation issue.

Authentic Catholics pray for an influx of masculine men to consider the priesthood. In the past, a permissive attitude allowed candidates for the priesthood who had homosexual inclinations as long as they remained celibate. Pope Benedict XVI addressed this problem of un-masculine candidates in his 2005 instructions regarding seminary admission. He frankly said:

“The Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’”

Homosexual Acts Cannot Be Approved

The Catholic teaching from the outset has been clear. Since they are not natural, homosexual acts can never be justified. Accordingly, the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” states:

“Homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”

In the Vatican’s 1986 document, “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons,” the Church reaffirmed how homosexual relations are immoral:

“[7] . . . It is only in the marital relationship that the use of the sexual faculty can be morally good. A person engaging in homosexual behavior therefore acts immorally.

“To choose someone of the same sex for one’s sexual activity is to annul the rich symbolism and meaning, not to mention the goals, of the Creator’s sexual design. Homosexual activity is not a complementary union, able to transmit life; and so it thwarts the call to a life of that form of self-giving which the Gospel says is the essence of Christian living. This does not mean that homosexual persons are not often generous and giving of themselves; but when they engage in homosexual activity they confirm within themselves a disordered sexual inclination which is essentially self-indulgent.”

A priest mortally sins if he engages in homosexual acts. But it is also a mortal sin for him to speak counter to the Biblical proof of God’s disapproval of homosexuality and the Church’s statement that homosexuality is disordered.

Some Shepherds Spread Falsehoods

There are Catholics – both laity and priests – who don’t care about the truths the Bible and Church have always declared about homosexuality. These insincere Catholics are scandalously saying the Bible and Jesus Himself were wrong about the only truly loving sexual relationship being between a married husband and wife.

In the same “Letter to the Bishops” document above, the Vatican addressed this reality of ignorant or heretical Catholics who choose to either ignore Scripture and the teaching of the Church or seek to undermine it:

“[8] . . . increasing numbers of people today, even within the Church, are bringing enormous pressure to bear on the Church to accept the homosexual condition as though it were not disordered and to condone homosexual activity. Those within the Church who argue in this fashion often have close ties with those with similar views outside it. These latter groups are guided by a vision opposed to the truth about the human person.”

It’s one thing to have the Catholic laity be in defiant opposition to orthodox teachings on sexuality. What is worse is to have the Church’s ordained shepherds publicly oppose it.  Even if they don’t publicly champion the cause of the so-called gay movement but simply remain silent on the topic, silence implies consent.

Closeted and not-so-closeted homosexual clergy often minister with a type of gay-affirmative philosophy. This manifests itself with reinterpreting Scripture though a homosexual lens. Their homilies spew misinformation and falsehoods to their congregations, such as:

• Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed due to inhospitality, not homosexuality;
• Jesus had a homosexual attraction toward John, hence the Biblical labeling of John as “the disciple whom Jesus loved;”
• Christ Himself was so unconcerned with the topic of sodomy that was mentioned in the Old Testament that He chose to never refer to it in the Gospels.

Father James Martin is the perfect example of this type of priest who publicly opposes the Church and appallingly misinforms Catholics. Martin is an American Jesuit who is constantly in the news and on social media for endorsing what the Church condemns – gravely sinful homosexual behavior.

Alongside him are a multitude of other heretical clergy both nationwide and worldwide. They support everything from so-called Pride Masses, where rainbow-colored “LGBTQ” banners adorn the altar, to blessing same-sex “marriages,” to allowing the parish to sponsor a “pride happy hour” at the local “gay bar.”

The confusion men of the cloth have spread about the truth regarding homosexual sin even occurred due to Pope Francis’s words and actions. He was quoted in 2013 as saying, “If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?” The media and many Catholics interpreted this as an endorsement of homosexual relations.

Then in 2020, Pope Francis openly endorsed same-sex legal unions in a documentary interviewing him. He said, “Homosexual people have the right to be in a family…What we have to have is a civil union law.”

This was followed three years later by Francis putting his signature on a Vatican document, Fiducia Supplicans. It allowed Catholic clerics to bless same-sex couples. Again, most wrongly interpreted this to assume so-called homosexual marriages were now legitimate in the eyes of the Church.

The Church Needs Her Clergy to Be More Manly

Hand in hand with the secular culture, a number of priests see nothing sinful with homosexuals actively engaging in sex. Even if they are not engaging in sex themselves, they champion the so-called LGBTQ cause. These men of the cloth create a parish culture of heresy at worst and of confusion at best.

The great Doctor of the Church, Thomas Aquinas, argued that the gravity of a sin is intensified by the degree of excellence in the one committing it. Aquinas explained that God grants all priests and bishops the grace to live as witnesses to the purity, goodness, and truth of the way of Christ. Thus, it is more significantly scandalous when clergy commit serious acts of sin. The result is both increased difficulty in getting the laity to believe the faith and more likelihood in enticing them to sin themselves.

A priest commits a sin of commission when he teaches there is nothing wrong with homosexuality or engages himself in homosexual lust. A priest commits a sin of omission by forgoing any preaching at Mass about the immorality of sexual depravity. In both manners of sinning, he is leading everyone in his congregation to error or danger.  The begin to think generally, “The sins I do aren’t bad if they make me feel good” and to think specifically, “Jesus and His Church were wrong about homosexuality so there must be other doctrine that are erroneous or archaic as well.”

It Is Right To Admonish Sins

As Catholic laity, we have the right and the duty to criticize members of the hierarchy when necessary for the good of the Church. We should not be ashamed to admonish sinners, as it is a spiritual work of mercy, done with compassion and humility.

When bringing to light the mortal sin of engaging in or promoting homosexuality, we should not condemn without mercy, but we should also not be permissive without truth. No one is outside of God’s love – be they a homosexual engaging in sexual activity or a heterosexual engaging in adultery. But that love calls homosexual or heterosexual sinners to chastity, to conversion, and to holiness.

It would be terrible for parents to say nothing when they observe their child reaching toward a hot burner on the stove. Similarly, it would be even more appalling if one may be in danger of an eternal loss from God and we say nothing. Catholic laity and clerics should boldly speak up about the good of chastity and speak out against homosexuality. Our goal should be to achieve the salvation of those whose souls may be in jeopardy.

Specifically in reference to priests and bishops whom we observe “reaching toward a hot burner,” we need to warn them. At the same time, we need to pray that they will repent of their sins, return to orthodoxy, and start leading their flocks to the Truths of Christ.

Men Need to Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable

If the Son of Man was effeminate, He never would have been able to suffer in the desert. He also would not have survived scourging at the pillar, carried the cross up to Calvary, and saved us by sacrificing His life on the cross. Priests are to act “in persona Cristi,” that is, “in the person of Christ.”

Masculinity is about sacrifice, toughness, and steadfastness. Masculinity draws men closer to their true calling, reflecting the fact God created them in His image. It is a virtue for males to fully embrace trying to attain.

Effeminacy, on the other hand, poisons men’s souls. Effeminacy in men is a devious vice that males need to combat.

Men of the cloth – along with our modern age teenage boys, young adult men, husbands, and fathers – all need to toughen up.