Star-Ledger
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
BY JEFF DIAMANT AND MARK MUELLER
Star-Ledger Staff
At the nation's second-largest Catholic seminary, Mount St. Mary's in Maryland, Monsignor Steven Rohlfs is blunt about the kind of men who will be accepted to study for the priesthood.
Straight men.
Homosexuals, with all due respect, need not apply.
Rohlfs said it has been that way at Mount St. Mary's -- and at other big seminaries across the nation -- for at least three years now, since the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church prompted seminaries to re-examine how they recruit, accept and train candidates for the priesthood.
Which is why Rohlfs was a bit surprised by all the drama surrounding yesterday's release of Vatican guidelines barring most gay men from becoming priests.
"It's just not that much of an issue to us because the matter has already been addressed," said Rohlfs, the seminary's rector. "I think in the vast majority of seminaries that's the case."