A Sensible Approach to Gay Seminarians?

Andrew Sullivan calls Vatican correspondent John Allen's interpretation of the coming ban in the Catholic Church on gays in the priesthood "merely bizarre." It sounds infinitely sensible to me--and I hope Allen's interpretation of the situation is accurate:

"Although this is a difficult point for many Anglo-Saxons to grasp," Allen writes, "when the Vatican makes statements like 'no gays in the priesthood,' it doesn't actually mean 'no gays in the priesthood.' It means, 'As a general rule, this is not a good idea, but we all know there will be exceptions.'

"Understanding this distinction requires an appreciation of Italian concepts of law, which hold sway throughout the thought world of the Vatican. The law, according to such thinking, expresses an ideal. It describes a perfect state of affairs from which many people will inevitably fall short. This view is far removed from the typical Anglo-Saxon approach, which expects the law to dictate what people actually do.

"While Italians grumble about lawlessness, fundamentally they believe in subjectivity. Anyone who's tried to negotiate the traffic in Italian cities will appreciate the point. No law, most Italians believe, can capture the infinite complexity of human situations, and it's more important for the law to describe a vision of the ideal community than for it to be rigidly obeyed. Italians have tough laws, but their enforcement is enormously forgiving. Not for nothing was their equivalent of the attorney general's office once known as the Ministry of Justice and Grace."

Sounds fine to me. On the other hand, I don't agree with Allen's view that the Church's ban on contraception falls under the same rubric. It is understandable that there may be homosexual men who would be chaste and holy priests. It is never acceptable to engage in selfish and sterile sex.


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