::Saturday, September 24, 2005::
WITCH-HUNT IS ON!
.. In an effort to impose the ban on gays from seminaries, the Vatican is sending investigators to U.S. seminaries to find out the extent of homosexuality among seminarians on their way to the priesthood. Interviews will be conducted with the priest hopefuls, their superiors and course work will be looked at in an effort to make sure that seminarians are well-formed in the image and likeness of Jesus. How in heavens are they going to find out FOR SURE if someone is gay? I hope you're not thinking what I'm thinking! Hmmm.. scandalous indeed.
Everybody knows that Psychology is not an exact science. It can "raise flags" as one Monsignor in the US Church hierarchy said but it cannot fully and definitively determine sexual orientation at that early stage. Most seminarians are in their early 20's and are still struggling with their identity. This is one contributor to the problem in that gay priests often find out later in life when they are serving their ministries that they are actually gay. Behavioral manifestations start to come out that they can't control that confirms their orientation.
There are indications that FBI files will be used, credit card purchases and past history to aid the process. These are people with dignity and inalienable human rights! The Vatican is treading on dangerous ground here. Can't they at least use these means to finally weed out the pedophile and maniac priests first who should be the real targets of these investigations? What message is the Church communicating to the faithful when she herself declared that it is not the orientation that is intrinsically evil but the behavior or actions?
Questioning and probing seminarians orientation undermines the very identity of sincere people of faith, children of the same God as we heterosexuals. It questions their very being and existence. It will also have a chilling effect on the already dwindling numbers of priests in the Church. Gay priests who have practiced celibacy amid this brouhaha will either go underground or leave the priesthood because of this affront in their persons. The losers are the faithful and the people of Christ who make up the Church, not the Church servants who are now playing God.
Link
Everybody knows that Psychology is not an exact science. It can "raise flags" as one Monsignor in the US Church hierarchy said but it cannot fully and definitively determine sexual orientation at that early stage. Most seminarians are in their early 20's and are still struggling with their identity. This is one contributor to the problem in that gay priests often find out later in life when they are serving their ministries that they are actually gay. Behavioral manifestations start to come out that they can't control that confirms their orientation.
There are indications that FBI files will be used, credit card purchases and past history to aid the process. These are people with dignity and inalienable human rights! The Vatican is treading on dangerous ground here. Can't they at least use these means to finally weed out the pedophile and maniac priests first who should be the real targets of these investigations? What message is the Church communicating to the faithful when she herself declared that it is not the orientation that is intrinsically evil but the behavior or actions?
Questioning and probing seminarians orientation undermines the very identity of sincere people of faith, children of the same God as we heterosexuals. It questions their very being and existence. It will also have a chilling effect on the already dwindling numbers of priests in the Church. Gay priests who have practiced celibacy amid this brouhaha will either go underground or leave the priesthood because of this affront in their persons. The losers are the faithful and the people of Christ who make up the Church, not the Church servants who are now playing God.
Link
