Gene Robinson, the openly gay bishop of the Anglican Church, has some words for the other guys, the Roman Catholics:

Robinson, whose appointment in 2003 as Bishop of New Hampshire has been deeply divisive for Anglican Christians around the world, added: "Let's keep our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters in our prayers".

"I cannot imagine how discouraging it would be to have a church hierarchy doing what it does.

"I find it so vile that they think they are going to end the child abuse scandal by throwing out homosexuals from seminaries. It is an act of violence that needs to be confronted."

I'm curious to know what exactly is so violent.

Like any group, the Roman Catholic Church has membership rules. It is tightening those rules up significantly in light of the child abuse scandals that have rocked the Church. Those scandals involved priests and young boys for the most part. Now some of this is in part because of boys were more available, but nevertheless, it suggested that the overwhelming majority of abusive priests were homosexual or bisexual (at least inasmuch as their attraction to teens is concerned).

Note that despite the fact that they are called pedophiles, much of the abuse happened to post-pubescent boys, which is a different thing. Techincally, it is called ephebophilia, and unlike many pedophiles, there is almost always an exclusive gender orientation for an ephebophile. But even for pedophiles, gender preferences often exist.

So the bottom line is that much of the abuse of children and teens by priests in the Catholic Church was perpetrated by homosexuals.

You'd think something like that would be obvious, but you hear over and over again that to single out homosexuals is somehow missing the target. I'm not sure how, since presumably if you removed all homosexual priests, you'd remove the vast majority of the child abusers. You'd also remove priests who were homosexual but not child abusers, and that has Gene Robinson upset.

Now why should Gene Robinson be upset? The Roman Catholic Church is clear and uncompromising about her stand on homosexuality: homosexual acts are sinful. If you are attracted to people of the same gender, that in itself is not a sin, but as a Catholic you are required to believe that acting on those desires is a moral wrong.

So what benefit does it do Gene Robinson and his pro-gay lobby to have homosexual priests in the Catholic clergy? If they are good Catholic priests, they would label their own homosexual urges as enticements to sin. It they are good Catholic priests they would say, "Even though I am a celibate homosexual, I think that Gene Robinson's appointment is an affront to God and should never have happened, and I will work dilligently to make sure it never happens in the Catholic Church", something that would seriously undermine Robinson's agenda:

"We (homosexuals) belong in the temple. It is exactly where God wants us to be," [Robinson] said.

The only thing I can think of is that Robinson believes, and probably with reason, that a significant number of Roman Catholic priests who are homosexual, perhaps even a majority, believe as he does.

If that is the case, the Roman Catholic Church is not just removing potential child abusers for her clerical ranks, but also a fifth column of homosexual activists in the vein of Robinson, agitating for a fundamental rewriting of Catholic teaching.

And I'm willing to bet that the Catholic Church is fully aware of this.

That must rankle Robinson, who must wonder if his controversial appointment helped precipitate this house-cleaning in the Catholic Church. He puts a brave face on:

"We are seeing so many Roman Catholics joining the (Anglican) church," said Robinson on a visit to London. "Pope (Joseph) Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) may be the best thing that ever happened to the (US) Episcopal Church."

Nice try. First, there is plenty of movement in the other direction too, and for exactly the same reason.

But with all the Anglican Churches in the entire continent of Africa about ready to schism over this and pull in closer to the Roman Catholic orbit, I think we all know who is winning that race hands down.

Now we come to Gene Robinson's mixed message. Which is it? Be happy that the Catholic Church is ejecting homosexuals from the priesthood because it is filling the pews of Anglican churches, or be angry that the Catholic Church is ejecting homosexuals from the priesthood and "confront" it in some way that is left unexplained?

This mixed message hides a deeper truth. Gene Robinson is not satisfied that he has challenged Anglican doctrine, even at the risk of a massive schism. His goal is to force all religions, or at least Christian ones, to openly accept practising homosexuals, regardless of that religion's theological beliefs, and he knows that the recent moves by the Catholic Church will block that goal.

Hence the frustration. Makes me think the Catholic Church is on to something here.