The Bangor Daily News ran a short item Dec. 6 about the Vatican’s intention to forbid the ordination of gay men. This story should have been on the comics page. The priesthood is full of gay men, most of them closeted. It’s too late to shut the door.

Lying about sexual orientation would be easy. Attempts at enforcement would be ludicrous. Would a man be kicked out of the seminary for having a poster of Walt Whitman on the wall? For visiting a gay bar because a friend invited him? For reading a gay book? Because an enemy in the seminary lied about him?

Finally, the absurdity of the proposed ban is revealed by 1,100 pages of documents just made public by the Archdiocese of Boston; vile and sordid crimes by heterosexual priests fill these pages. Is the solution to ban heterosexual men from the priesthood?

Peg Cruikshank

University of Maine

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