Bishop Gumbleton teaches compassion for gay priests

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton took a break from his work for global peace this week to write a piece in America in support of continuing to ordain gay men (Yes, Gay Men Should Be Ordained.) Read it: don't stop with my summary. You're probably familiar with the arguments based on Christ-centered compassion--Jesus would not have excluded anyone from ministry, and neither should we--and those based on psychology: homosexuality is not related to pedophilia, and gay and straight people are equally capable of living celibate lives. However, Bishop Gumbleton goes even further here. He shows us how God's plan is uniquely carried out in gay and lesbian people. "Through their testimony of suffering," he quotes from Brother James Empereur, "God has chosen gays and lesbians to reveal something about God that heterosexuals do not." Gay people may be uniquely called to preach God's truth, Bishop Gumbleton suggests, because they have had to struggle against internal and external opposition in coming to know a deep truth about themselves. What a richly radical approach: in a time when people are searching for new reasons to treat gay and lesbian Catholics as liabilities, Bishop Gumbleton hails them as an extraordinary source of grace.

I have a holy card Bishop Gumbleton blessed. Some day I expect it to work miracles.