BOSTON (MA)
Sydney Morning Herald
By Michael Paulson in Boston
September 17, 2005
A Vatican investigation into evidence of homosexuality in Catholic seminaries in the US is alarming gay rights advocates but is pleasing conservatives, who are hoping that Pope Benedict will issue a ban on gay men as future priests.
The search, due to begin in a month, is part of a Vatican review prompted by the sexual abuse crisis involving 229 seminaries, theology schools and other Catholic institutions.
The chairman of the Boston College theology department, Father Kenneth Himes, criticised the review on Thursday, saying that if the bishops want to understand what caused the sexual abuse crisis, they should investigate their own offices.
"What really created the sexual abuse crisis was not poor formation of priests in the seminaries, but poor personnel management in the chanceries," Father Himes said. "Now we are having an investigation of the seminaries, but I wonder when the Vatican and the American bishops will investigate their own chanceries."