December 03, 2005

CLOSED DOORS

EMMITSBURG (MD)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

By KEVIN ECKSTROM
Religion News Service

EMMITSBURG, Md. - EMMITSBURG, Md. -- When Joe Yokum considered a call to the Catholic priesthood five years ago, the first thing a seminary official asked him was not his understanding of the Trinity or salvation, or even why he wanted to be a priest.

"Do you consider yourself to be a homosexual man?" recalled Yokum, now 27 and a third-year seminarian at Mount St. Mary's Seminary here. Jarred by the question, Yokum answered no.

"He wanted to know right away," Yokum said of the questioner.

If Yokum had answered yes, he probably would have been denied admission -- even before Tuesday's release of new Vatican rules that are designed to keep men with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" from becoming priests.

Posted by kshaw at December 3, 2005 07:45 AM