As those of us who have even basic faith formation know, a desire in itself is never a sin. Logically, then, an orientation that makes one susceptible to a desire isn’t either. You could sit there and entertain the desire, fantasize about it deliberately, and depending on your state of mind that might be a sin. You could put the desire into action deliberately, and if the act you choose to commit is sinful then you’ve committed a sin. If the act you choose to commit is grave enough, it might even be grave sin– which could be a mortal sin, under the right conditions. But the desire itself is morally neutral. An orientation that disposes one for or against certain desires, then, is practically meaningless in this context. One man might struggle with the desire to have adulterous sex with a certain beautiful woman. Another man, like Father Hollowell assuming his tweet is an accurate description, might struggle with an enormous sexual appetite and feel tempted to bed every single woman in the world despite his vow of chastity. Another man might desire to have sex with a man. Another man might have a desire for another sinful act completely unrelated to sex. As long as all four of these men don’t act on these wishes but continue to live a life of virtue– by the mercy of God, these men did not sin. They are equally blameless for their desires, according to the Catholic Church. But the man who is attracted to another man would not be looked upon the same way as the other three, if their desires were somehow all made public. That chaste man would be looked upon as a pervert for a desire that is no fault of his own, in a way that the other chaste men would not.
And it seems to me, that that is a form of the unjust discrimination the Catechism forbids: that if you found out your brother was struggling with a temptation different than the ones you struggle with, you would hate him for it.
In fact it’s even worse than plain old discrimination, because right now a huge and influential number of Catholics are desperate to pin the entire priestly sex abuse scandal on closeted gay priests– despite the fact that a number of abusive priests abused girls. We’re only beginning to scratch the surface of the issue of priests abusing nuns, which is an enormous problem recently brought to light and which certainly doesn’t have anything do to with homosexuality. Yet every time a priest is exposed as having abused a woman, excuses are made for him and the whole issue is brought back to condemning priests who are attracted to men. If anyone finds out a priest is experiencing that particular temptation, that priest could be branded as a sexual abuser and scapegoated for the sins of every priest who’s abused anyone. He could very well be subjected to violence.
I don’t have a solution for any of the situations highlighted in the New York Times. But I don’t think the answer is to snort that if I, with my set of struggles, can be chaste, then another person with a different set shouldn’t whine so much. I think part of the answer lies in realizing that if the very fact that a person struggles with a temptation different than your disgusts you, that’s not you being a good Catholic. That’s you being guilty of pride, the root of all sin. It’s our duty as Catholics to see our own sins and not judge our brothers– to look upon ourselves as the worst of sinners and return again and again in repentance to the mercy of God. We should look upon our fellow human beings to ask how we can love them better and help them bear their crosses, not to torment them for having different crosses than our own.
If a priest or seminarian is committing a sin or spreading error publicly, it’s not wrong to publicly call them out– indeed, it might be committing the sin of scandal not to call them out. They represent the Church. If a priest is committing physical, emotional or sexual abuse and we find out about it, we must cry out against that abuse with a thousand tongues and not rest until he’s stopped for the victim’s sake. But if he’s just admitting to a certain embarrassing struggle, and you and I don’t happen to be the person in charge of his discernment at the seminary– that’s none of our business. Our job is to love and accept our brother in any way we can and help him carry his cross.
Christ is not honored by obsessing over other people’s temptations.
(image via Pixabay)
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