Malta Today
The Holy See has put its foot down on gay men in the seminary but its complex instruction does not explain whether it is sexual orientation or sexual immaturity it is concerned about. Can the Vatican get over its badly-handled investigations of the US child abuse scandals?
How grave a mission is it for the Church to fish out the gay men in the clergy? A nonchalant wave, a campy drawl, or maybe cassocked queens unhappy with their hems?
The Vatican’s recent 1,300-word instruction on the “active discernment” of candidates to the priesthood who might be gay, has presented a new dimension to the identity of the Vatican – evidently torn between its universal message of love and manifest homophobia. ...
Critics claim the instruction is misguided, a smokescreen on the real problem in the Church when it comes to sexual abuse and paedophilia. But now it seems the Church is bent on affirming time and again the heterosexuality and maleness of its shepherds, slamming its brawny arms onto the barroom table, drinking beer, talking football: not only does it want it to be an all-male changing room – it wants to keep the cissies out.