UNITED STATES
The Day
Published on 9/26/2005
The Holy See is reportedly about to announce a policy in which homosexuals will no longer be welcome at Catholic seminaries. The Church has long taught that homosexuality is a disordered state. Despite this, the Church has, until recently, seemingly ignored the fact that homosexuals make up a significant percentage of ordained priests and seminarians.
With this policy, and Vatican visits to American seminaries scheduled to begin, the Church's willful ignorance will soon end. Vatican officials plan to review all 229 Catholic seminaries in the United States. Among the questions that each institution will be required to answer is whether or not there is evidence of homosexuality in the seminary. At the same time, the Church will not remove already-ordained gay priests.
The Vatican became more concerned about homosexuality in the priesthood when it became apparent during the clergy sexual abuse scandal that most of the victims were young boys. But hounding gays out of seminaries is not the way to prevent pedophilia. Most sexual predators of children are heterosexual and not gay.