November 26, 2005

New gay priest edict widely condemned

CANADA
Toronto Star

Nov. 26, 2005. 01:00 AM
LYNDA HURST
FEATURE WRITER

A new Vatican instruction on banning homosexual men from entering the priesthood won't be officially released until Tuesday, but its leaked contents are being condemned on a wide range of fronts by a wide range of critics.

They say it is:

Hypocritical, given that repeated studies show that 25 to 50 per cent of already ordained Catholic priests are homosexual — some celibate, some not.

A smokescreen, targeting gay clergy for the sexual abuse scandals that rocked the U.S. church in 2002, while covering up the hierarchy's failure to deal with them.

Scientifically out-of-date, ignoring evidence that sexual orientation is innate, and continuing to teach that "the psychological genesis of homosexuality remains largely unexplained."

Lamentably short-sighted. The number of new priests is in free fall and more than half the rest, at least in North America, are past retirement age.

Posted by kshaw at November 26, 2005 09:28 AM