Presbyterian Schism Over Same-Sex Attraction Revives Debate On Catholic Clergy Ordination
(ANALYSIS) America’s latest Protestant schism occurred between Oct. 6-8 when Westminster Churches of America held a Convening Synod in Kansas City, Missouri, to break from the 122,000-member Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which itself broke from more liberal mainline Presbyterians in 1981.
The dispute follows the EPC’s June vote to clarify that homosexuals committed to celibacy may become clergy. The new WCA insists that such “unnatural sexual attractions” must “necessarily disqualify men from ordination,” regardless of their actual behavior.
By coincidence, one month after the EPC’s action, U.S. Catholic discussion of this same issue was revived when the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Church Life issued a report on judging the “suitability” of clergy candidates that gave bishops and seminary leaders cautiously restrictive advice.
The EPC assembly voted by 57% to approve recommendations from a two-year study. This reaffirmed that clergy and lay elders must either “live faithfully in the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman” or “remain sexually chaste” if single, and that “disordered sexual desires” such as “same-sex attraction” are sinful. The WCA and other traditionalists agree on those points, while in the 21st Century major “mainline” Protestant denominations have adopted liberal LGBT beliefs.
In addition, the EPC states that members may “consider for ordination” clergy candidates with a same-sex attraction if they regard this as sin, repent, and have “fled” such “a weakness not embraced, but rather mourned as they rest upon the grace and strength of the Lord.” The EPC considers this a “clarification” of what it has believed, not a change.
“Biblical standards” in the EPC Book of Discipline define “homosexual practice,” not homosexuality as such, to be immoral. Similarly, modern Bible translations favored by evangelicals emphasize behavior in Paul’s listing of sinners in I Corinthians 6:9-10. Instead of simply “homosexuals,” the English Standard Version specifies “men who practice homosexuality” and the New International Version refers to “men who have sex with men.”
Another difference is that the EPC allows local option on ordination of female clergy, while irrevocable WCA-wide policy states that “only biblically qualified and called men shall lead as pastors and elders.” Existing lay elders who are female will be allowed to finish out their terms. Each congregation is free to decide whether to have female deacons. Also, the WCA teaches that wives are to be “helpers through God-honoring submission to their own husbands in gospel partnership.”
The Rev. Bill Heming of Tacoma, Washington, the WCA’s founding “stated clerk” (administrative secretary), told presbyterianplumbline.org that 23 congregations were represented at Kansas City and perhaps 40 will be filing for “dismissal” from the EPC. Heming explained that the homosexual ban applies only to church office-holders while everyone “is welcome to hear the Gospel, worship with us, or receive the care of Christ’s church.”
The EPC study and decision resulted from the case of St. Louis Pastor Greg Johnson, who identifies as homosexual but maintains celibacy. He and his congregation left the conservative Presbyterian Church in America in 2022 and inquired about EPC affiliation, which prodded action to settle the question.
Catholic Church policy on this is defined in a 2005 Instruction from the Vatican’s education agency after consultation with the offices on doctrine and on worship, with endorsement from Pope Benedict XVI. The church teaches that persons with such “objectively disordered” tendencies “must be accepted with respect and sensitivity” and it opposes “unjust discrimination.”
But it is “necessary to state clearly” that the church cannot admit to seminaries or ordain to the clergy “those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies, or support the so-called ‘gay culture’.” However, clergy candidates for whom this was only “a transitory problem” can proceed to ordination if these tendencies are “clearly overcome” after a trial period of at least three years. If “serious doubt” persists, candidacy should cease.
That stance is reflected in the new research report, written by Father Thomas Berg, a moral theologian with St. Joseph’s Seminary of the New York archdiocese and visiting scholar at Notre Dame, and Timothy Lock, a Franciscan tertiary and former director of psychological services at St. Joseph’s.
The report agreed with the Vatican on barring candidates with a “stable” same-sex attraction, but recognized “sharp disagreement” about this. In particular, 22% of bishops surveyed “agree” or “strongly agree” they are “comfortable ordaining a man who experiences deep-seated same-sex attraction provided he is firmly committed to celibacy.” By contrast, surveys showed only 17% of mental health professionals, 16% of seminary rectors, and 12% of faculty and spiritual directors were comfortable with this.
According to the report, “stable” attraction is at minimum “a strong reason” to pause preparation for ordination and assess “prospects for successfully navigating a celibate life,” which then “may, more often than not,” end candidacy. The report recommended further work on just how to apply the Vatican’s distinction between “transitory” and “deep-seated” gay attraction.
For a critique of the Notre Dame report, the liberal National Catholic Reporter turned to Francis DeBernardo, the veteran executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Catholic group that “advocates for equity, inclusion, and justice for LGBTQ+ persons.” He was “stunned” by the report’s “negative view of gay men,” saying it creates “a cloud of suspicion about gay men in the priesthood that will only increase fear, discourage true vocations,” cause “great personal pain” and “rob the church of many healthy and holy priests.”
He said the report “implies that heterosexual men -- all of them -- are somehow equipped to integrate their sexuality in healthy ways, while their gay counterparts are not. One need only look at the incidence of sexual compulsion among heterosexual men to know this is not true. Sexual compulsion is an equal opportunity phenomenon.”
For DeBernardo, the church’s “homophobic policies” prevent “honest and authentic lives” for gay priests and can “make celibacy more difficult to honor.” He also objected that gay priests themselves “are the experts” but apparently were not consulted in compiling the report, which “shows no awareness” of their ongoing contributions to the church. Without its existing gay bishops and priests, he asserted, ”the Catholic Church would be greatly diminished.”
Richard N. Ostling was a longtime religion writer with The Associated Press and with Time magazine, where he produced 23 cover stories, as well as a Time senior correspondent providing field reportage for dozens of major articles. He is a recipient of the Religion News Association's Lifetime Achievement Award. He has interviewed such personalities as Billy Graham, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI); ranking rabbis and Muslim leaders; and authorities on other faiths; as well as numerous ordinary believers. He writes a bi-weekly column for Religion Unplugged.