Fr. James Martin, S.J. who is well known for his obsessions with worldly things recently said that homosexual priests should come out and tell their parishes so everyone can see that a man who is attracted to other males can live chastely. I sighed when I read this. In most parishes with a homosexual priest most of the non sheltered adults are already aware of it. Years ago Rocky and I were in another town and went to Mass. The priest behaved like an flirty old actress playing a part written for an ingenue. After Mass a number of ladies gathered round him to giggle and coo. Except for the sacristan and the security guard (this was a tough part of town) and Rocky who stayed with me to pray, all the men who were at Mass left. Able bodied men, men on walkers, and men with canes just about got into a flying wedge formation in the rush to get out.
The old men, who have seen life, the young and not so young single men, and the fathers are not going to happily follow one of Father Martin's friends. Many of them won't say a word about it except in the most noncommittal, vague way. They will simply either leave the parish, leave the Church, or if their wives give them too much trouble about that they will use the passive resistance method of withdrawing from parish life. They will attend Mass and stampede for the door as soon as the recessional hymn starts playing. No amount of nagging or haranguing them not being involved enough will move them. A few men will take the Barnhardt position and will make some listeners squirm and gasp as they get graphic about the supposedly harmlessness of Father Martin's friend why they don't believe in it. These few will be quickly dismissed and ignored for being "mean" and crude but they will cause a ripple and the polite men quietly withdrawing will be a whirlpool.
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