One morning in June 2013, Annie and I were in Ecuador volunteering at a senior center in Quito. Then we took a bus to a rough barrio, on top of a steep hill, to work at an after-school program for 180 children until five in the evening.
After we got home that night, as we were watching TV in our apartment, I heard Pope Francis state, “Who am I to judge?”
It shocked me because I had heard of this pope before he was elected, and he had a different tune. A couple of years before, we had spent two months in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We had heard from the LGBTQ+ community about the local archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio (who later become Pope Francis), and he was not friendly to their cause. So his words “Who am I to judge?” were overwhelming. Maybe the Roman Catholic Church finally had a pope who might stop judging the LGBTQ+ community and instead resolve the church’s longtime sexual abuse issues.
When I went to seminary in 1957, I suspected that a quarter of my class was gay, but everybody was pretending they weren’t. They stayed in the closet. Why? The church has often attracted gay people since the beginning. The drama of the liturgy, the art, architecture, and music, and a sensitivity to hurting people attracted the gay and lesbian community, and for good reasons. They have so many great gifts that they bring into the church setting.
I went to a boys’ prep school, a men’s college, a male Marine Corps, and an all-male seminary. I had all sorts of negative messages about gay people. But when I learned about the power of unconditional love, those negativities had to go.
My question is, Why is the Roman Catholic Church so reticent to deal with the sexual abuses within its system? It is not alone. I think religion, which tends to be trusting, attracts people with deviant sexual behaviors.
I felt Pope Francis was in a prime position to tackle this issue head-on. But something held him back. Quietly, I wondered, “Is the abuse so pervasive in the Roman Catholic Church that thousands might be implicated, even Francis?”
In 2024, while speaking privately with bishops, he said that seminaries are rife with “frociaggine,” a homophobic Italian slur for “effeminate men” or “faggots.”
He apologized for using such a word, but that didn’t help much. The damage was done.
For me, the solutions for how to address the homophobia and assault within seminaries are simple: (1) test future seminarians to ensure that they understand their sexual orientation, (2) stop pretending that humans can be desexualized, and (3) open the priesthood to all and allow seminarians to marry. The Roman Catholic Church already has married priests and ordained women within its clergy. My marriage has been a huge asset in my ministry.
In no way am I saying that Pope Francis wasn’t one of the most refreshing popes in my lifetime. I never want to diminish his powerful ministry to the least of these. But I’m disappointed that the Roman Catholic Church won’t resolve this issue once and for all.
I just want to see an end to sexual abuse in the church, all churches, and all religions. It should be a thing of the past. Religious leaders are smart enough to deal creatively with this issue.
PeaceLoveJoyHopeKindness
Bil
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P.S. People often ask me provocative questions about current events, both religious and secular. I have found that some of these questions are being asked universally. I’ll be periodically alternating regular articles with one of those questions and my answer. I invite you to send me your question to bilaulenbach@yahoo.com.
Photo courtesy of Catholic Church England and Wales