Bishop Robert Barron Seems Squeamish on the Homosexual Question
It is not true that Catholic Bishop Robert Barron does not mention homosexuality in his new “Letter to a Suffering Church” about the sexual abuse crisis. He does mention it. Once. That’s Right — Once The single mention comes in a passage on St. Peter Damian. He wrote how, in those long-ago days, sodomy was a terrible problem in the priesthood and among the laity. Barron quotes Damian, “The befouling cancer of sodomy is, in fact, spreading so through the clergy, or rather like a savage beast, is raging with shameless abandon through the flock of Christ.” Barron writes, “By the term ‘sodomy’ Peter Damian meant a range of homosexual behaviors, but what particularly vexed him were acts of predation by older priests of young boys and the lax attitude of those religious superiors who knew about such outrages and did nothing to stop them.” It is obvious Bishop Barron does not want to talk about homosexuality at all. Barron argues that Damian has an especial distaste for bisho...