He had a two-year, pastoral relationship with a Catholic student who was an altar server and who was considering seminary. The student, as a Catholic, almost certainly already knew what the Catholic Church teaches about homosexual activity.Not at all.
But ideas, and actions based on them, have an order. The idea that homosexual activity is a bad thing is dependent on a lot of other ideas about marriage, sexuality, sex roles, and so on.
If you know someone does not share those ideas, or understand them, you cannot present the issue in the same way you would if they did. And if you are in a position where you are responsible to help someone who explicitly does not agree with those underlying ideas, you may have to take a different approach than you would with someone who did.
That does not mean saying something that is untrue, or that you would have to refrain from saying something challenging. It is just a matter of considering what thoughts that person will be able to use to help him at that time, perhaps which ones will help him come to a place where he can see the bigger picture eventually, or that will take the pressure off the situation, or whatever.
Anyway, I dont tend to think that what these students describe really falls outside of what would be normally expected. Even non-religious students would, I think, expect to be told that the CC does not accept such relationships if they approached a priest about it.
In one of the articles on this, the student mentions that the priest even knew that he was gay for those two years, and treated him with kindness and respect, but that he was upset when the priest objected to him having begun an actual, physical relationship, since the priest counseled him not to continue with the physical relationship.
Given that context, it's hard to imagine how the priest could have acted otherwise. Really, it's hard to imagine that the priest would have not told him the same thing if it were a heterosexual dating relationship. It would be surprising if the student wasn't aware that the Catholic Church opposes all sexual activity outside of marriage. If he was unaware that Catholics are against premarital sex, it's certainly appropriate for the priest to let him know that.
What makes it even stranger is the fact that he somehow thought that this relationship would be compatible with a priestly vocation in the Catholic Church. Even the most unreligious people I know are aware that Catholic priests are celibate.
Is it really plausible that this student, who reads a lot and was very actively involved in the Church, was unaware of the Catholic discipline of priestly celibacy, and the Catholic teachings on homosexual activity, premarital sex, and abortion?
If, by the student's own admission, the priest treated him with respect while knowing about his SSA for two years, then it's hard to see this as anything other than an attempt to punish the priest for refusing to teach other than what he is duty-bound to teach.
In Christ,
Fr. John
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