Trouble in Paradise?

One of the nicest people I have ever interviewed is Timothy Cardinal Dolan.  Through the good offices of my former employer, WVOX, it was arranged for me to meet the then Archbishop at an event at the opulent, if not stuffy, Plaza hotel. To tell the truth, the place is in need of a facelift, or at least it did two years ago; but still has that high class feel.

The guest of honor was anything but stuffy.  He was dressed in the plain black suit that you might see on any priest and had a beer in his hand.  He was warm engaging and took the initiative to put me at ease.  “How do you like New York?” I asked. “Whats not to like, Bob, I have a cold beer and I am meeting nice people like you,” he answered.  I was now all his.  He was generous kind, and even offered me a cold one.

The above is why it is killing me to be even slightly critical of this man who is fast becoming the Marino Rivera of clerics.  He is genuine, classy and effective, and impossible not to like. But even the Sandman blows a save now and then.

In yesterday’s paper, the Cardinal was adding what appeared to be correcting context to Pope Francis’s statements about being more accepting of gay priests. Dolan told reporters on a flight from Brazil that “while certain acts may be wrong, we will always love and respect the person and treat that person with dignity.”   He went on to say in an interview that the Pope’s comments did not signal a change in Catholic Church doctrine.

It is hard to know at this point if the two clerics are playing good cop and bad cop; if Dolan felt context was needed; or if there is a genuine rift. 

What is clear is that Pope Frances seems to be quite aware that the Church cannot endure if it does not alter its attitude towards women and gay people. More importantly, given the large number of gay priests, the Church finds itself between a rock and a hard place, a destination created by its own antiquated celibacy rules and what is said to be an insular gay culture in many parts of the Church.  

If homosexuality was accepted, gay priests could feel less conflicted about their vocation.  More importantly, and less likely in my lifetime, if priests-- gay and straight-- were allowed to marry, more believers would be drawn to the ministry.

I understand the need for the Cardinal to hold fast to principals.  What would any faith mean without their moral timber?  But times have changed and rules sometimes have to change with them.  After all, despite Galileo’s recant, the earth is, indeed, not the center of the universe.  What seems to be happening, if slowly, is that Pope Frances has begun the slow walk to modernity.