Reactions to yesterday’s post have been strong and abundant. Most readers resonate with my concerns about the straight/gay schizophrenia in the Church of Rome. A couple readers in private emails accused me of nasty anti-Catholicism and “disrespect for the successors of the Apostles.”

First of all I am really not anti-Catholic. The church has been my nourishment for nearly seven decades. I greatly value the Catholic tradition because it is so wonderfully incarnational and sacramental.

The Catholic tradition says we experience and commune with the Divine in, with, and through our bodies. All the more reason why we should have a healthy and happy sense of our own sexuality: at all levels in the church.

Am I disrespectful? Can’t imagine why. Healthy criticism is well….healthy and necessary. Jesus was particularly good at it as well. When Peter the Rock (whom many consider the very first Pope!) was particularly troublesome for Jesus, he had no problem calling him “Satan” and told him to get out of the way. I certainly would not call the hierarchy “Satan” but would like to tell some of them where to go.

Official Roman Catholic leadership needs to get with it. I don’t mind helping them.

Now again my main criticism: Our Catholic leadership suffers from a severe case of arrested sexual development. They wrap themselves in purple and crimson late medieval ball gowns and make pronouncements about sex, sexuality, and gender that are ignorant and dangerous.  

The Church of Jesus Christ deserves something much better!

John Greenleaf

PS We are ALL successors of the Apostles!