UNITED STATES
RichardSipe.com
September 25, 2005
The Vatican is going to repeat an investigation of Catholic Seminaries that they conducted 25 years ago, but with a new focus and motivation. I knew some of the investigators on that first round. Much of that investigation ended up as window dressing to reassure the seminary system that they were doing a bang-up job. And that is the kind of report they got. There were little changes: reaffirmation that women and former priests should not be teaching theological students. That directive had some effect, but there have been silent holdouts in many of the better seminaries.
The Vatican this round—in an inquiry that supposedly aims to shore up the practice of celibacy—is looking in the wrong places and taking the wrong focus.
The investigators are going to look at priesthood candidates and their trainers to see if celibacy is adequately taught and observed. That is valid. And the answers are clear. Celibacy is neither taught adequately nor practiced well by students or teachers in Catholic seminaries. (I will not make many friends in high places by saying so, but there is plenty of evidence of sexual activity among the students and faculties of Catholic training centers.)
But the examination of sexual activity and non-celibate observance needs to start at the top—in the Vatican and in chancery offices, with bishops, cardinals, and their assistants.