UNITED STATES
PrideSource
By Mubarak Dahir
Originally printed 9/8/2005 (Issue 1336 - Between The Lines News)
To anyone who has followed the long history of anti-gay edicts out of the Catholic Church, the latest development in its anti-gay campaign will come as no surprise.
According to numerous published reports last week, the Catholic Church is expected to soon move to ban gay men from being ordained as priests.
The latest religious instruction against gay men out of the Catholic Church has apparently been drawn up by the Congregation for Catholic Education and Seminaries, the body that oversees the training and the ordination of priests.
The controversial new document - that has not yet been released but is reportedly being reviewed by Pope Benedict after at least three revisions - is said to instruct the faithful that gay men are not fit to enter seminaries and study for the priesthood. ...
But none of the smoke and mirrors can hide the real motives behind the Catholic Church's anti-gay move: It is just the latest step in the organization's scapegoating of gay men for the sex abuse scandals that have rocked the American Catholic Church in recent years.
In fact, in September the Catholic Church will send more than 100 investigators to the United States to look into the sex abuse scandal. The investigators will visit a scheduled 220 churches and Catholic seminaries, interviewing teachers, students and alumni.