The Catholic bishops of the United States, faced with ongoing controversy over the church's posture toward homosexuality, next month will vote on a proposal that would condemn ``scorn and hatred" of gays and lesbians but would also declare that gay couples should not be allowed to marry or adopt children, that baptizing the children of same-sex couples presents ``a pastoral concern," and that the church has the right to deny ``roles of service" to gays and lesbians who are not celibate.
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The proposal, which is to be voted on in Baltimore at the next semi annual meeting of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, is sure to ratchet up the debate over gays and lesbians in the Catholic Church, which teaches that men and women who are attracted to people of the same sex should be celibate, as should unmarried heterosexuals. In recent years, the Catholic Church, in Rome and in Boston, has been outspoken in its opposition to same-sex marriage, and, in the wake of widespread presumptions that there is a disproportionately high number of gay men in the Catholic priesthood, the Vatican has undertaken a review of American seminaries that asks students and teachers about the presence of gay men.
The bolding is my own. According to Mr. Paulson, the Church is debating even though its teaching is clear cut. Perhaps what he should say is that different people are wringing their hands and deciding whether or not they can follow the teaching or find some way to undermine it in their favor.
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