LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY breezyg)

So, I happened across this little gem on the NY Times.  (full text behind the cut)





Vatican to Check U.S. Seminaries on Gay Presence

Investigators appointed by the Vatican have been instructed to review each of the 229 Roman Catholic seminaries in the United States
for "evidence of homosexuality" and for faculty members who dissent
from church teaching, according to a document prepared to guide the
process.

The Vatican document, given to The New York Times
yesterday by a priest, surfaces as Catholics await a Vatican ruling on
whether homosexuals should be barred from the priesthood

In a possible indication of
the ruling's contents, the American archbishop who is supervising the
seminary review said last week that "anyone who has engaged in
homosexual activity or has strong homosexual inclinations," should not
be admitted to a seminary.

Edwin O'Brien, archbishop for the
United States military, told The National Catholic Register that the
restriction should apply even to those who have not been sexually
active for a decade or more.

American seminaries are under
Vatican review as a result of the sexual abuse scandal that swept the
priesthood in 2002. Church officials in the United States and Rome
agreed that they wanted to take a closer look at how seminary
candidates were screened for admission, and whether they were being
prepared for lives of chastity and celibacy.

The issue of gay
seminarians and priests has been in the spotlight because a study
commissioned by the church found last year that about 80 percent of the
young people victimized by priests were boys.

Experts in human
sexuality have cautioned that homosexuality and attraction to children
are different, and that a disproportionate percentage of boys may have
been abused because priests were more likely to have access to male
targets - like altar boys or junior seminarians - than to girls.

But
some church officials in the United States and in Rome, including some
bishops and many conservatives, attributed the abuse to gay priests and
called for an overhaul of the seminaries. Expectation for such a move
rose this year with the election of Pope Benedict XVI, who has spoken
of the need to "purify" the church.

It is unknown how many Catholic priests are gay. Estimates range widely, from 10 percent to 60 percent.

The
catechism of the Catholic Church says people with "deep-seated"
homosexual tendencies must live in chastity because "homosexual acts
are intrinsically disordered."

The Rev. Donald B. Cozzens, a
former seminary rector who set off a controversy five years ago when he
published a book asserting that "the priesthood is or is becoming a gay
profession," said in an interview yesterday that many in the church had
come to accept his observation.

But he said he was concerned
that the seminary review would lead the church to ask celibate faculty
members and seminarians to withdraw.

"That would be a major
mistake from my perspective," said Father Cozzens, who teaches in the
religious studies department at John Carroll University in Cleveland.
"First, I think it's unfair if not unjust for committed gay seminarians
and faculty who are leading chaste lives. And secondly, I don't know
how you can really enforce that."

The Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a
sociologist who resigned in May as editor of the Jesuit magazine
America under pressure from the Vatican, said that with the shortage of
priests, the church can hardly afford to dismiss gay seminarians.

"You
could have somebody who's been in the seminary for five or six years
and is planning to be ordained and the rector knows they're a
homosexual," said Father Reese, now a visiting scholar at Santa Clara
University in California. "What are they going to do, throw them out?

"It's
much healthier if a seminarian can talk about their sexuality with a
spiritual director, but this kind of policy is going to force it all
underground."

Archbishop O'Brien, who is supervising the
seminary review, did not respond to requests for interviews made to his
office in Washington. In an interview with The Associated Press, he
said the Vatican document was being reviewed by the pope and could be
released this year.

The seminary review, called an apostolic
visitation, will send teams appointed by the Vatican to the 229
seminaries, which have more than 4,500 students. The last such review
began about 25 years ago and took six years to complete.

At
each seminary, the visitors are to conduct confidential interviews with
every faculty member and seminarian, as well as everyone who graduated
in the last three years.

A 12-page document with instructions
for the review is now being distributed to seminarians and faculty
members. It asks whether the doctrine on the priesthood presented by
the seminary is "solidly based on the church's Magisterium," or
teaching, and whether teachers and seminarians "accept this teaching."
Among the other questions are these:

¶"Is there a clear process
for removing from the seminary faculty members who dissent from the
authoritative teaching of the church or whose conduct does not provide
good example to future priests?"

¶"Is the seminary free from the influences of New Age and eclectic spirituality?"

¶"Do
the seminarians or faculty members have concerns about the moral life
of those living in the institution? (This question must be answered)."

¶"Is there evidence of homosexuality in the seminary? (This question must be answered)."

The questionnaire also asks whether faculty members "watch out for signs of particular friendships."

The Rev. Thomas Baima, provost of the largest seminary in the United
States, St. Mary of the Lake, in Chicago, where the Vatican is sending
nine interviewers, said such questions were no surprise.

"The
reason we're having an apostolic visitation now is precisely in the
aftermath of the clerical sexual-abuse scandal," Father Baima said.
"Issues about screening our candidates, about formation for celibacy,
about how we teach moral theology are going to get more attention than
how we teach church history."

But one gay priest, who said he
would not give his name because he has been told by his order not to
speak out, said the seminary review would demoralize gay priests.

"It
says to gay priests, many of whom are hard-working, faithful men who
live their promises of celibacy with integrity, that you should never
have been ordained," he said.

This just really pisses me off. 



When are people going to realize that homosexuality is not pedophila... and that this kind of crap hurts Catholicism more than it helps?