REVISITING THOSE WYD PHOTOS
"GAY" PRIESTS WITH IDLE THREATS
Dear Friend of Catholic Answers:
And a fine cruise it was to the Mexican Riviera. Sorry you missed it!
Altogether there were nine talks, three break-out sessions, and two panel discussions, plus a rollicking farewell reception where we were entertained with a clever ditty titled "Catholic Answers." It was sung to the tune of "Immaculate Mary." One stanza:
Karl Keating quotes poems
and his humor is dry.
We love that his answers
Make poor Frances cry.
The "Frances" is Frances Kissling of Catholics for a Free Choice. She should have been there.
Next year, in the first week of September, we will sail to Bermuda. If there is the slightest chance you might be able to join us, please mark that week on your calendar. We will post more information about the 2006 cruise at our web site in a few weeks.
JUDGE NOT LEST YE BE JUDGMENTAL
Part of my October 18 E-Letter was devoted to a criticism of Marian Horvat's criticism of young people photographed at World Youth Day. My point was that she gives whatever the lens captures the worst possible interpretation, and it is uncharitable--and presumptuous--for her to do so.
Apparently she missed my point. At her web site she has printed several anonymous letters that praise her and complain about me. One of her correspondents says, "[Keating] makes up some profile for a 16-year-old guy that sounds totally traditional, but that is the point--totally traditional youth do not do these things at World Youth Day."
One photo had shown a mohawked youth, and Horvat wrote this caption: "Another punk feels at ease in the tolerant ambience of Cologne 2005." I asked how she could read this young fellow's heart and mind, and I asked what she would have to say if it turned out that the teenager planned to study for the priesthood, prayed the rosary daily, and was reading Augustine's "Confessions."
Not possible, says her anonymous correspondent. No orthodox young person would sport such a hair style. You can judge a book by its cover, and you can judge a youth by his spiked hair.
The same correspondent says that the "photo of the kissing guy with a rosary hanging from his head is completely disrespectful, and Keating says nothing other than 'big deal.'"
Actually, what I said was this: "I don't see anything particularly problematic about the photo. It reminds me of that famous 'Life' magazine photo, taken in Times Square on V-J Day, showing a sailor kissing a nurse."
A photo showing two young people kissing made the cover of America's top pictorial magazine in 1945, so I don't see much reason to complain about a comparable photo today.
Of course the difference is the rosary. I keep my rosary in my pocket, when out and about, not draped around my neck or across my brow, but there was nothing in the World Youth Day photo to suggest that the young couple thought of the rosary as a piece of jewelry. Perhaps they had just come from, or were just going to, a public recitation of the rosary. I don't know--and neither do Horvat and her correspondent.
What bothers me about Horvat's approach--and it is an approach used throughout her web site--is the judgmentalism. I don't like that word and seldom use it, but here it applies. It almost is too mild. It is not so much that Horvat judges what the camera captures but that she condemns it, when what it captures is more easily given an innocent interpretation than a sinister one.
She seems to go out of her way to find fault. She begins with the premise that World Youth Day is A Bad Thing, and therefore the young people who attend it must be Bad People, and here are photos to prove it!
Let me quote another of her correspondents, who is identified merely as "Fr. P.S." He says that "I know of others who have had run-ins with Mr. Keating, and they all come away speaking about his ego. I will pray for him as I am at least indebted to him for his book 'Catholicism and Fundamentalism.' Back in 1996, I believe, it was the first Catholic apologetics book that I read, and it was a great help to a young mind. The man has done much good, but his lack of humility is killing him, literally."
I wonder how this young priest knows anything about my health and what, if anything, is killing me "literally." If he knows that I am soon to expire, he is ahead of my physicians, and it would be a kindness for him to inform them of my condition so that they might prescribe a regimen that will bring me back to health.
As for my ego, I admit that I have one. So does the young priest. So does Marian Horvat. And so does each reader of this E-Letter. We all have egos, and we all have egos that get the better of us at times. I do not mind someone pointing out this fact, but I find it especially unbecoming for a priest to make such a public comment about anyone other than himself.
Besides, when one person accuses another of having an ego problem, usually it is a way to sidestep some point made by the other person. You don't need to answer someone who is about to die from an ego overdose. You can say, with convenient anonymity, "Thank God I am not like other men."
MUM'S THE WORD
According to a report in "The Guardian" about the upcoming Vatican document on homosexuals in the priesthood, "some gay priests are discussing collectively staying away from pulpits on a Sunday to show how much the church relies on them. Other priests said they were considering revealing their sexual orientation to parishioners. Some are contemplating 'outing' gay bishops who would be called upon to enforce the new guidelines."
I never thought I would come out in favor of proposed actions by "gay" priests, but I can endorse these.
Let them stay away from pulpits if they so choose, for a Sunday or a string of Sundays. (The Church will survive.) Let them reveal their homosexuality to their parishioners. Let them "out" their bishops.
A little truth in advertising might be good. It might be good for parishioners to know that when Father X and Bishop Y talk about "respecting" certain tendencies, they have a personal stake in the matter. Give the folks who fill the collection baskets a further reason to vote with their feet and with their pocketbooks.
Except in a few places none of this going-public will happen, of course. "Gay" priests and bishops will keep as low a profile as they can. It is a proved approach. It works.
p.s., If you have a comment about anything appearing in this E-Letter, please do not hit your Reply button. Instead, go to Catholic Answers' discussion forums at
http://forums.catholic.com
where you may post your comment in the forum dedicated to the E-Letter. You will find a thread devoted to this issue of the E-Letter. Feel free to add your comment in the form of a reply to that thread.
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