December 7, 2005
A Catholic Prophecy
By Maggie Gallagher

The Catholic Church just reiterated its long-standing, if mostly ignored, prohibition on ordaining gay men. How are we to react?

In "Four Cultures of the West," John W. O'Malley argues that Western civilization consists of four distinct styles of thought. From Athens come academic culture, which seeks the rational truth; humanistic culture (stories and rhetoric), which is oriented toward the good; and artistic culture (painting, sculpture, liturgy), which enacts rather than speaks.

But out of Jerusalem comes the fourth cultural style, the prophetic mode: "This is the culture that must speak out. It is the culture of alienation, of protest, of standing apart because one can do no other. Here gather the Puritans and the Jansenists and all those given to crusades. Fundamentalists both religious and secular are comfortable here. This is the culture of the martyr (and the fanatic). It is the culture, above all, of the reformer decrying injustice and corruption in high places."

But the prophet does more than denounce, he also holds out "promise of better times to come: 'For behold, darkness shall cover the earth. ... but the Lord will arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you.' It is therefore the culture of great expectations."

The great gay apologist Andrew Sullivan likes to imagine himself a humanist or intellectual (especially liking to contrast himself thus with the virtually demonic forces of fundamentalism he fearlessly and constantly battles), but the slightest acquaintance with his actual writing makes it clear: Andrew Sullivan is a prophet, one of the great and successful prophets of our time. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that one man with his pen changed the way we think about, talk about and interact with our fellow citizens who are gay. The blog is mightier than the sword.

So it is painful to me, as a fellow Catholic, to watch Andrew's dawning, flailing, angry recognition that the Catholic Church is never going to follow his lead. Andrew decided long ago that homosexuality was as normal and desirable as opposite-sex desire, and that therefore, gay marriage was morally required.

The Catholic view, as I understand it (and I am only a fair average Catholic, certainly neither a theologian nor a prophet), goes something like this: God made men and women for each other. Sexual desire has only one good end: It is meant to turn men and women toward each other in a permanent, loving, fruitful union called marriage. In the faithful sexual union of husband and wife, we mirror (and thus can glimpse) the image of God.

But what difference can the orientation of his lusts possibly make to a celibate priest anyway? There are many possible answers. One is that, in Catholic terms, a gay man is not really giving up anything sexual to become a priest. Yes, Catholic priests are not supposed to have sex with men, but then neither are Catholic laymen. It must be harder, at a minimum, to discern a true vocation to celibacy if a wife is not something you personally find attractive. (Hence, the longstanding similar rule against ordaining eunuchs.)

For Andrew, this makes Pope Benedict the personification of the dark forces, a virtual anti-Christ. "And so another window closes. Eventually the darkness will be perfect," he thunders.

The prophetic mode has many virtues, but one reason it tends to fizzle out, in spite of all the good prophets do, after bursts of indispensable reforming energy, is that it is awfully hard to live like that for any length of time.

Gay people have won in fact the right to be treated as friends, neighbors, fellow citizens in the public square, even if we disagree about sexual ethics or on particular issues such as gay marriage. For the foreseeable future, the challenge is going to be to find new ways to live respectfully together in spite of our ongoing deep disagreements about the nature, meaning and purpose of sexual desire.

In this new environment, let me make a prediction: Americans (rightly or wrongly) are going to find thundering prophetic denunciations increasingly unhelpful and unattractive. On either side.

Copyright 2005 Maggie Gallagher

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-12_7_05_MG.html