FIT TO WEAR THE COLLAR

The Troy Polloi was not founded to cover national and religious matters. Nor will we make a habit of such coverage. However, the new Pope has set the Church on a disturbing trend. Previously, the Church's policy on gay priests was fairly straight forward. Priests are supposed to be celibate so inclinations or sexual preference was largely irrelevant.

Pope Benedict, the day after becoming pope, made his intentions clear and is pushing the Church towards a ban on gay seminarians. This Pope does not want gay seminarians or gay priests regardless of the celibacy vows they take.

Any religion has a right to proscribe behavior they find immoral. Logic does not have to play a part in any religion. We do have the right to criticize however and will do so when appropriate.

We only decided to discuss this issue because of a local connection.


The photograph above shows the body of Father Michael Judge. Judge ministered to the New York City Fire Department. Years before he was affiliated with Siena College. Father Judge died on September 11, 2001. He voluntarily went into the Trade Center with members of his flock when he could have stayed at a safe distance. He was killed by a piece of debris while moving between the Towers through an underground passage.

Father Judge was openly gay. We are hard pressed to find a man worthy to wear the collar of a Catholic Priest if Father Judge is not worthy in the eyes of Pope Benedict.