We have to "head off a situation", Pope Benedict said, where "the celibacy of priests would practically end up being identified with the tendency to homosexuality". That's how my (two paragraph) quotation of his statement ends. That conclusion, however, is not a a resting place for me or for us, but a point of departure. He sets out for us the problem he is struggling with, and with which our minds and hearts are to grapple. But what precisely is the problem he is pointing to? Why would celibacy end up being equated with homosexuality? How could that happen? Who would be doing the equating, and why are they arriving at that conclusion?
A possible answer to the question: They are the public, or at least that part of the public who come into contact with priests, and form impressions of what they see. That means they are mainly (but not exclusively) Catholics, and mainly churchgoing Catholics at that. What would make regular, churchgoing Catholics (the few of them left) start to identify the "celibacy of priests" with "the tendency to homosexuality"? The logical answer is: seeing priests whom they think are homosexual, whether they are or not.
That clause, whether they are or not, is somewhat important. I can be heterosexual, yet appear to others as homosexual. Or, I can be homosexual and still appear to others as heterosexual. It is not just a matter of what I am, but of what people perceive me to be. Generally, perceptions are accurate.
But perception is not infallibly in touch with the truth of things in every instance. At times my perceptions tell me more about myself than they do about what is really out there. We assume our perceptions are correct unless we have good reason to question or doubt them. I suppose people would only start equating celibacy with the tendency to homosexuality when they start seeing a number of priests who strike them as homosexual. Not just seeing one or two, now and then, but seeing a lot of them, a multiplicity. If that happens, they would begin to think it is a normal state of affairs among the Catholic clergy.
It's not helpful to waste a lot of time trying to discovering who is and who isn't homosexual, nor to puzzle over my mis-perceptions, and discover their causes. Why not? Much depends on each human being's personal history, of which sexual preferences are a part: my family, culture, education, experiences, past and present choices, plus the imponderable element of God's grace and my response to it. If I am am mystery to me (and I am), how can I presume to have an accurate perception of you, since you are definitely a mystery too? Anyway, even if perceptions are generally accurate, and mis-perceptions were correctly addressed by each one of us, the result would be...what? The one Pope Benedict arrived at: To think that these men were priests because they were not attracted to the female of the species but to the male.
Since this is a concern of the pope, it is fair to assume he thinks that such a general perception is not just a dangerous possibility, but a probability. Any guesses on the likely countries he thinks that such a conclusion about the clergy is taking place? What would you say are the top three countries? Would the United States win, place or show?
