I read with interest of Cardinal Raymond Burke’s attack on Cardinal Walter Kasper on the issue of Communion for the divorced and his comment that homosexuality is “an ailment” caused by the social environment (The Tablet, 2 May).
As a priest and biologist I wish to offer contrary but relevant information. As regards Communion, his comments are an indication of his distance from the real world. In many parishes in the US, if you told the congregation that those not married by Church cannot receive the Eucharist you would end up with a pretty empty church and no catechists. Maybe Cardinal Burke is unaware that at the Last Supper, Jesus gave the Eucharist to Judas Iscariot. Maybe Jesus was not obeying “the Magisterium” so beloved by the cardinal.
As a biologist, I offer some thoughts in regard to homosexuality. If we managed to get accurate figures in a survey in regard to sexual orientation in any human population, the results would give a curve of binomial distribution. The mean would represent your average male or female who falls in love, marries, procreates and gives little or no thought to sexual orientation. But as we move towards the homosexual end of the spectrum, the vast majority would again be heterosexual but with an increasing tendency towards homosexuality the farther we move from the mean. At the 2.5 per cent end we would find those who are exclusively homosexual. On the other side of the curve we would find the reverse. Again the vast majority would be heterosexual but the farther we move from the mean, the greater the hostility and rejection of homosexuality. At the 2.5 per cent end we would encounter a phenomenon found in all societies i.e. the small group who are totally and instinctively hostile to homosexuality.
Nobody draws attention to this group which is a menace in all societies. This is the group which favours imprisoning or killing gays. Interestingly in societies where they flourish, women are also treated as inferior to men and are usually abused in and out of marriage.
I find it odd, to say the least, that a man like Cardinal Burke, who has had such high rank in the Church, should presume to pontificate about areas of life in which he clearly lacks competence.
Fr P John Mannion, retired priest of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas
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