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Loading ...Vatican calls for psych tests to weed out gays
10.30.2008 2:48pm EDT
(Vatican City) The Vatican said Thursday it is considering psychological testing for prospective priests to screen out candidates “with strong homosexual tendencies” and heterosexuals “unable to control their sexual urges.”
The document, released by Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education, said that early detection of “sometimes pathological defects” would help avoid tragic experiences – a veiled reference to the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Church and which the Vatican has blamed on homosexuality, despite evidence showing no link between sexual orientation and pedophilia.The Vatican said that testing would be decided on a case-by-case basis when seminary rectors feared a prospective priest had “grave immaturity.”
“Such areas of immaturity would include strong affective dependencies; notable lack of freedom in relations; excessive rigidity of character; lack of loyalty; uncertain sexual identity; deep-seated homosexual tendencies, etc.”
The document also said that it was “not enough to be sure that [a candidate for the priesthood] is capable of abstaining from sexual activity” but also to “evaluate his sexual orientation.”
Gay groups have accused the Church of using homosexuals as scapegoats for the abuse scandals.
In 2005, the Vatican ordered a major evaluation of U.S. seminaries to look for evidence of homosexuality. It said that men with “deep-seated” homosexual tendencies shouldn’t be ordained, but that those with a “transitory problem” could become priests if they had overcome them for three years.
It is unknown how many gay priests have been forced out of seminaries and the Vatican Thursday declined to give specifics.
Last I heard, the catholic church wasn’t overwhelmed with applicants for priesthoods. It sounds like the future leadership for the catholic church will be even more brain dead and out of touch with humanity. Whatever the positive qualities the catholic church may present, a flock following a stupid shepherd off a cliff is probably not going to do a hell of a lot of good for anyone.
The implication here seems to be that the Roman Catholic Church still holds true to the conviction that homosexuals, mainly, are pedophiles and they still blame gay men, especially, for all the abuse that has occured over the years to young children. When is the Roman Catholic Church going to come out of the basement and admit they are wrong? When is the Roman Catholic Church going to allow its’ priests the freedom to marry and lead normal sexual lives – a senseless directive from the church which has absolutely no foundation in Bibical teachings. When is the Roman Catholic Church going to stop inciting hate and start teaching that Jesus Christ is all about love, loving your family, loving your neighbours and treating everyone equally and respectfully. Yes, the Church is in dire need of self-cleansing, but not from what it purports to be the issues.
Caitlyn Said: “This is a bad move by the Vatican. They’re having enough trouble recruiting for the priesthood already…”
Unfortunately, according to articles I’ve read in recent years, the Vatican sees this issue in an entirely different light. The Vatican thinks that any losses, however large, due to purging the priesthood of “undesirable” elements, especially gays, would eventually lead to a stronger priesthood and one more in tune with conservative Vatican thinking.
It isn’t the sexual orientation of gay priests that bothers the Vatican as much as the fact that so many of them in recent decades have shown a tendency toward liberal thinking. They are seen as a threat to Church authority.
Another problem to consider is recent studies which show that Catholic youth seem to be more conservative than their parents. How this might play out on gay issues is not clear.
Caitlyn Said: “This is a bad move by the Vatican. They’re having enough trouble recruiting for the priesthood already,…”
Good! Let the dinosaur die. Religion, the Roman Catholic Church in particular, has been a bane on mankind for centuries.
As a psychologist and professional counselor who specializes in psychological testing, I wonder which assessments the Catholic Church will use. None of the standardized, objective personality inventories can do this nor are designed to do this. If anyone has any information on which they are planning on using, please contact me at pope@umsl.edu. I’d be quite interested in helping to debunk this process. It seems like a scare tactic.
Well, speaking as someone who was forced out of seminary in 2003 (after completing six years out of eight) for that very reason, I can tell you that they are not very direct about it. They will conceive of just about any other lame excuse they can find without coming out and saying it was because I was gay. I was very open and honest about it in the beginning, and I had no difficulties living in that atmosphere during my time there, neither did I “act out” or make it a topic of conversation. There were ones who acted like they had something to prove and shoved it in everybody’s face, but I had moved beyond that behavior. I discovered that my greatest sin was being completely open and honest to those who interviewed me at the beginning. I guess I was as naive as they are ridiculous (or belligerently ignorant) about it.
Goes to show you how the church is all about exclusion vs. inclusion.
This is a bad move by the Vatican. They’re having enough trouble recruiting for the priesthood already, and this policy won’t only scare off gays or people with ‘homosexual tendencies’ (more like stereotypes), but also people who support gays. And heads up vatican, most young people do support gays.
Well! really! So I guess ladies it is just one more place we can’t where fabulous hats and long dresses with large jewelry oh well! Do they test for Heterosexual tendencies as well? I mean isn’t that the higjest percentage of the ones who diddle alter boys anyway? and why would any self repsecting homosexual want to be part of a group that does that anyway, I say good riddence!!! Let me be the first to line-up and take the test!!!!
The issue that concerns me as much as the priests who molest, is who will be truly responsible for making sound judgement calls in each individual who chooses to enter the priesthood. What about those “higher-ups” who conceal and protect known molester priests? They should be the first to undergo such testing.
They deserve what they’re going to get.
Regardless of the Vatican’s motives, their weeding out of gays from the priesthood will be doing these men a favor. A friend of mine was a gay draft evader hiding in the priesthood and it was a disaster all around.
I propose they test people for their psycological health if they believe in “Adam & Eve” (you know, that quaint story that would have us all be direct decendents of incestual relationships), if someone actually lived “inside a whale”, if someone gathered two of every living species on a boat, if a woman had a “virginal” birth to a Son, if someone magically “rose from the dead” and “floated up to “heaven” ” etc. etc. These mythologies are presented as fact based upon… oh, that’s right… nothing beyond the that all convenient catch-22 of having “faith”. They should be giving evelations to anyone unstable enough to believe such absurd mythologies that make no realistic or logical sense.
This sounds like another witch hunt, in so much as if a priest doesn’t like another priest they will scream homosexual
I wonder how many psychiatrists and psychologists in countries where homosexuality is legal (including, grudgingly, the US) will refuse to participate in testing people for something that is neither a crime nor an illness. I suppose they’ll be able to find enough quacks like Paul Cameron to do their bidding, but the whole thing smacks of virulent anti-intellectualism and a total rejection of the Scientific Method and the findings of the medical / psychological community. But, what can you expect from a “church” that still calls *masturbation* a “seriously disordered act (!) ???” Seminarians wank just like anybody else; they just feel guiltier about it (chuckle).
Cheers,
Bud Clark
San Diego CA USA