FLORIDA
Sun-Sentinel
By William Butte
Posted December 12 2005
Is the Catholic Church ready to endure a persistent pedophilia problem?
That seems the obvious question to ask in light of the Vatican's new, long-anticipated "instruction," which bans men who "practice homosexuality or present profoundly deeply-rooted homosexual tendencies or support the so-called `gay culture' " from seminaries and religious orders. The new policy allows for men whose "homosexual tendencies must be overcome at least three years," as well as accepting current gay clergy.
But what the directive fails to address are men who have a deeply rooted sexual fixation toward children.
When the church's child abuse scandal erupted in 2002, the hierarchy initially dismissed the young abuse victims as unrepentant liars. But as the scope of the scandal quickly grew, and the church's own complicity in covering it up was exposed, the episcopate, seeking a new victim to blame, embraced an old stereotype and pointed its collective finger at the church's multitude of gay priests.