My question for gay christians.

See this is not widely common knowledge and is even debated seemingly between Catholics. I have heard many suggest that any one is doesn't have only transitional same sex attraction was barred from priesthood. Not to mention I have heard many many many Catholics implicitly or directly insinuate that gay or same sex attracted men cannot be priests because apparently we are all inherent future child molesters. There is a lot of ambiguity in the paragraph and it can easily be read to bar any ssa or gay person from priesthood and has been advocated by some.

I do think there is a little bit of the issue and context you are missing. We live in a society (Those of us in the US atleast) that idolizes romance and marriage. We live in a Christian society that by and large views marriage as the pinnacle of Christian life so much so that it offers very little support to single people. Sermons, homilys, support groups, ministries are focused on married people and families while singles groups are primarily pre-marital dating pools with focus on finding the one.

This leaves gay people by and large if trying to committ to church teaching feeling like on the outside looking in. Wondering what about me? What happens when I get old and sick? Am I doomed to go home to an empty apartment for the rest of my life? Am I doomed to be alone without love? Why doesn't anyone seem to even want to invest in friendship? Am I just a bystander in this life?

Now, none of this has to be true but until there is a more concerted effort to support lifelong friendships and kind of counteract this idolatry of romance (many Christians almost encourage it only with the addendum of no sex till after marriage), a celibate vocation for a gay person is going to seem bleak. It will appear as basically choosing to lose the church and find love or remain in the church and alone without love. I believe that is false dichtomy of options but in the current atmosphere, it is what most are perceiving it as.

Add on the fact that there are a substantial minority within the church who do want nothing to do with gay people (who have been burned by other Christians in the past) and it makes finding fellowship difficult as well. It shouldn't be surprising given all this why many end up losing hope and falling away from the Church.

The issue, in my humble opinion, is not the church teaching, but rather the pastoral and community support fail of gay/ssa Catholics. So the discussion is not about doctrinal changes but about pastoral outreach methodology which tbh has been awful for a long time.

/r/Christianity Thread Parent