There is a continual emphasis that gay men are effectively an alien fifth column within the Catholic Church, doing nothing but destroying it slowly from the inside. (Mary Ebersol and Michael Rose's pieces spring quickly to mind.)

Somehow, in that shadowy area, implied behind the old "hate the sin, love the sinner" argumentation, that gay men are somehow more wrong by the very nature of their homosexuality than everyone else. It is implied -- quite clearly I personally think -- by many writers on the conservative end of things, that if we just got the gay men out of the Catholic Church, so many of these troubles would just go away. Pointing out that doctrines such as this would effectively get rid of Fr. Judge, far from being insignificant, is a serious issue that must be brought up again and again.

Most of the Catholic Priests that I've had the honor of working with, be they straight or gay, are honest and loving men. Those that abuse are the exceptions, not the rules. For all the Shanleys of the world, there are many more Judges. In all of the recriminations being bandied about, the fact that Fr. Judge was gay needs to be mentioned.

That so many people who didn't know Father Judge would seek to posthumously closet him, is a perfect example of the discrimination and denial that gay people have to live with day in and day out. I mean, the man is dead for christsakes and this is the crap that he gets? Can you imagine then what he had to do to hide his sexuality for much of his life? How even when he, by all appearances, came to terms with and was proud of the fact that he was gay, still had to hide that aspect of himself from those in his congregation and his administration because their own fears and prejudices would be detrimental to his pursuit of the vocation that he loved?

If that's what a priest had to go through, what about a regular joe on the street? What about a young person with out the time, experience and wisdom that Fr. Judge amassed? In light of all of that, the fact that the Catholic Church continues to place blame on the misfortunes that befall gay people at the hands of society squarely at the feet of gay people, is the height of arrogance and a glaring example of how far from the mark of its ideals of compassion and social justice the Catholic Church is.

One more thing. Judge wasn't homosexual, he was by every measure "gay," an by sexual orientation is integrated within the personality. His sexuality, as with all of us, was a part of him, a part of how he saw the world, achieved joy, and experienced sorrow. It wasn't an "action" alien to the person, an disorder to which he had no conceivable right. Judge was more than entitled to his sexuality. Denying it -- just because it makes so many uncomfortable -- can't be tolerated.