The un-heard voice

From those the media doesn't want to hear. As one who was delivered "from the homosexual lifestyle and from my history of depression", Scott McDermott has an incredible story to tell.

He wanted to become a priest after recovering and dealing with his SSA, but in his words, God setup roadblocks. Not a vengeful authoritarian heirarchy, but real blockades that kept him from making it to the deadline for his entry into the novitiate. Through the struggle that followed, he learned of his real calling as a lay member of the Church. And one he accepted, those roadblock in his life were removed.

From his testimony why he is thankful for the recent document on homosexuals in the seminary.

Priests tend to see people at moments of crisis: not only death, but also in their struggles with their own personal demons of addiction, crime, mental illness, and, yes, sexual brokenness (not to mention actual demons). The priest must be strong and healthy or he will be drawn into this maelstrom himself.

How true, and mostly missed in the discussion on priests and sexuality.

In our culture, we have developed the absurd habit of seeing vocation in terms of rights. But "equality before the law" does not mean that everyone is equally capable of fulfilling every role in our society. The priesthood is not an entitlement, it is a calling; God gives some men, and not others, the requisite gifts to live out the priesthood.

...

Since my collapse, which was really a conversion experience, I have often reflected on one of the lesser-known sayings of Jesus. "For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build, and was not able to finish' (Luke 14:28-30)."

I wish I had pondered those words before I began my misguided request for priesthood. And I wish that the instruction on vocations with respect to homosexuality had come out sooner. Thank God we have it now. It will be remembered as one of the most compassionate acts of a merciful pontificate.

There is a powerful testimony to the Truth. Many will refuse to see it. Many will deny it, but the Truth still remains.

tip to my cohort, Eric.