Column: Wrong way to purify the church

I have a feeling the outrages will never cease while Benedict XVI is pope.

A hard-line enforcer of Catholic dogma, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is expected to sign a document banning homosexuals from being ordained to the priesthood within the next few weeks.

It's all part of his plan to "purify" the church in the wake of the devastating child sex abuse scandals.

What I want to know is this: Where was the purification plan when Ratzinger, serving as right-hand man to John Paul II, watched his predecessor give Cardinal Bernard Law a spacious apartment in Rome and a cushy position as archpriest of the city's Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore after he resigned from the Archdiocese of Boston in disgrace?

Where was the plan when Law was allowed to say one of nine funeral masses for John Paul II in April?

Those Vatican actions were a slap in the American church's face. So is banning homosexuals from the priesthood.

Benedict XVI, it appears, likes simple solutions to complex problems. Previously, stubborn refusal was his solution of choice.

Now, his stubbornness puts the entire church in danger. Far from solving the sexual abuse crisis, the Holy Father and his advisers have merely found a scapegoat.

Even worse, they're just mimicking a policy already in effect. A 1961 church document recommends refusing ordination to homosexuals, although it's been widely ignored since then.

Essentially, we're back to square one.

The church won't solve the child sex abuse crisis until it openly discusses the issue in a frank, honest way. Let's start with this: pedophilia, not homosexuality, is the problem to contend with.

Why have thousands of cases of priestly pedophilia been reported, not just in America but around the world? Does the vow of celibacy have something to do with it? Is it a power issue? Have more boys been molested because, until recently, girls weren't allowed to be altar servers and therefore priests had less access to them?

I don't have the answers. But the Catholic Church should be asking the questions.

In refusing homosexuals admission to the ordained priesthood rather than seriously questioning the atmosphere that created the crisis, the Vatican does nothing to remedy the situation.

Gay priests who have already been ordained will be allowed to remain in their posts, but resignations have been threatened.

If many gay priests - who are estimated to form anywhere from 25 to 50 percent of the ordained - were to resign, the shortage of clergy would approach disastrous levels.

Many parishes already go without a priest or have shut down altogether. Yet, the church continues to exclude women, married men, and now homosexuals who wish to serve.

Benedict XVI claims he can't allow women and married men to be ordained because he's not authorized to change church tradition. Yet, previous popes have considered themselves authorized to alter all sorts of teaching, from lifting the condemnation of usury to allowing married men to become deacons.

And who's to say the Vatican even has it right concerning the tradition of excluding women from the priesthood? The apostle Paul mentions Phoebe, "a deaconess of the church at Cenchrae," in his letter to the Romans. (It's in chapter 16. Look it up.)

It's time for Benedict XVI and the old men in robes to learn the arts of compromise and modernity. Those who want to serve should be allowed to. Otherwise, the lack of a priest in many parishes may soon be followed by the lack of a congregation.