In his most recent e-letter, Karl Keating asks a few tough questions about the Vatican's instruction regarding the ordination of homosexuals. Excerpt:
The recent instruction regarding the ordination of homosexuals took, by various accounts, anywhere from five to eight years to write. I realize that things move slowly in Rome, but this may mark a new record in time inefficiently spent. The instruction was not long, it broke no new ground, and it contained no theological obscurities that necessitated long periods of high-level head scratching. It could have been written in a single afternoon. Perhaps it was, after which it was shuffled from one desk to another--for years.
If in that time it was seen by many competent eyes, I wonder why the instruction ended up with obvious imprecisions. What is meant by a "deep seated" homosexuality? What is meant by a "transient" attraction to it? These are the terms that decide whether a man is to be admitted to ordination. They needed much fleshing out but were left vague.
Given the clerical scandal in the U.S., did no one foresee that certain commentators and prelates would give their own spin to the instruction, trying to neutralize it? If this was foreseen, why was the instruction written so loosely as to allow such spinning? If it was not foreseen, why not (and why are those who did not foresee it permitted to compose such documents)?
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