A homosexual hunt
Monday, September 19, 2005
The Vatican is sending investigators into each of the 229 seminaries in the United States to uncover homosexuals. It is doing this in the wake of pedophilia scandals that have blackened the name of the Roman Catholic Church and cost it more than $1-billion in settlements with victims. This looks and feels like a witch hunt.
The church considers homosexual acts "intrinsically disordered." But it has tolerated gay priests for decades. As long as the priests took a vow of celibacy, they were tacitly permitted in the priesthood. This tolerance for homosexual priests was not to blame for the pedophilia scandal. There are heterosexuals who are pedophiles; there are homosexuals who are not. The vast majority of homosexuals, like the vast majority of heterosexuals, are not pedophiles.
Predators are to blame for pedophilia, and the church willfully turned a blind eye to predatory behaviour. By one estimate, 10,000 minors were molested, 80 per cent of them boys (perhaps so many more males were molested than females simply because priests have easier access to altar boys). The church received many warnings, but put protecting its image ahead of protecting children. Rev. Paul Shanley, the once-famous "street priest" who ministered to Boston youth, defended pedophilia at a meeting of the North American Man-Boy Love Association in 1979, yet the Boston Archdiocese permitted him access to children into the 1990s, and gave him good references. Another reason for the pedophilia was the unquestioned power that church leaders held in many communities. Power, combined with official tolerance for its abuse, is a dangerous combination.
The investigators will, according to a report in the New York Times, interview all 4,500 students, plus each faculty member, and ask (among other things), "Is there evidence of homosexuality in the seminary?" They will ask faculty if they watch for "signs of particular friendships." There is apparently concern in the Vatican that the presence of homosexuals in the priesthood subjects other homosexuals to temptation, and is unfair to heterosexual priests. Pope Benedict XVI is reportedly considering publishing a religious document that would prevent gay men from being priests. At a time that the church desperately needs priests, it is preparing to turn aside potentially fine ones because of their inclinations, not their actions.
The church has no intention of ending the vow of celibacy, nor of ordaining women as priests with the Pope's approval. Instead, it is belatedly trying to root out pedophilia by scapegoating homosexuals. For shame.
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