News: Vatican Psych Testing to Purge Gays
The Guardian reports that the Vatican intends to introduce psychological testing to screen out potential child-abusers and gays for their future priestly ranks. Why gays?
The Vatican identifies homosexuality as a deep-seated personality disorder and psychological flaw; condemning same-sex acts as “grave sins”, “objectively disordered”, “intrinsically immoral” and “contrary to natural law”. Even men who have a gay orientation but abstain totally from sex are condemned by the Pope as possessing a “tendency towards an intrinsic moral evil”. (from Guardian article)
And why not? It seems like an epidemic in the church. The articles goes on:
Estimates of the number of gay men in Catholic seminaries and the priesthood typically range from 25% to 50%, according to a review of research in the US by the Rev Donald Cozzens, author of The Changing Face of the Priesthood: A Reflection on the Priest’s Crisis of Soul. A similar proportion of priests is thought to be gay in the UK and Europe, including a number of bishops and cardinals.
Is there something iconic about a semi-naked man nailed to a wooden cross? (Full article 20 Nov 2008)
Alex McCullie
