Vatican to Check U.S. Seminaries on Gay Presence part I NY Times By LAURIE GOODSTEIN Published: September 15, 2005 Investigators appointed by the Vatican have been instructed to review each of the 229 Roman Catholic seminaries in the United States for "evidence of homosexuality" and for faculty members who dissent from church teaching, according to a document prepared to guide the process. The Vatican document, given to The New York Times yesterday by a priest, surfaces as Catholics await a Vatican ruling on whether homosexuals should be barred from the priesthood. In a possible indication of the ruling's contents, the American archbishop who is supervising the seminary review said last week that "anyone who has engaged in homosexual activity or has strong homosexual inclinations," should not be admitted to a seminary. Edwin O'Brien, archbishop for the United States military, told The National Catholic Register that the restriction should apply even to those who have not been sexually active for a decade or more. American seminaries are under Vatican review as a result of the sexual abuse scandal that swept the priesthood in 2002. Church officials in the United States and Rome agreed that they wanted to take a closer look at how seminary candidates were screened for admission, and whether they were being prepared for lives of chastity and celibacy. The issue of gay seminarians and priests has been in the spotlight because a study commissioned by the church found last year that about 80 percent of the young people victimized by priests were boys. Experts in human sexuality have cautioned that homosexuality and attraction to children are different, and that a disproportionate percentage of boys may have been abused because priests were more likely to have access to male targets - like altar boys or junior seminarians - than to girls. But some church officials in the United States and in Rome, including some bishops and many conservatives, attributed the abuse to gay priests and ed for an overhaul of the seminaries. Expectation for such a move rose this year with the election of Pope Benedict XVI, who has spoken of the need to "purify" the church. It is unknown how many Catholic priests are gay. Estimates range widely, from 10 percent to 60 percent.

part II The catechism of the Catholic Church says people with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies must live in chastity because "homosexual acts are intrinsiy disordered." The Rev. Donald B. Cozzens, a former seminary rector who set off a controversy five years ago when he published a book asserting that "the priesthood is or is becoming a gay profession," said in an interview yesterday that many in the church had come to accept his observation. But he said he was concerned that the seminary review would lead the church to ask celibate faculty members and seminarians to withdraw. "That would be a major mistake from my perspective," said Father Cozzens, who teaches in the religious studies department at John Carroll University in Cleveland. "First, I think it's unfair if not unjust for committed gay seminarians and faculty who are leading chaste lives. And secondly, I don't know how you can really enforce that." The Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a sociologist who resigned in May as editor of the Jesuit magazine America under pressure from the Vatican, said that with the shortage of priests, the church can hardly afford to dismiss gay seminarians. "You could have somebody who's been in the seminary for five or six years and is planning to be ordained and the rector knows they're a homosexual," said Father Reese, now a visiting scholar at Santa Clara University in California. "What are they going to do, throw them out? "It's much healthier if a seminarian can talk about their sexuality with a spiritual director, but this kind of policy is going to force it all underground." Archbishop O'Brien, who is supervising the seminary review, did not respond to requests for interviews made to his office in Washington. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said the Vatican document was being reviewed by the pope and could be released this year. The seminary review, ed an apostolic visitation, will send teams appointed by the Vatican to the 229 seminaries, which have more than 4,500 students. The last such review began about 25 years ago and took six years to complete.

reminds me so much of that lovely college i told you about. i hate the catholic church.

yes ma'am. i posted this especially for you, actually. 1. you're a young homosexual man; 2. you do develop "particular friendships" 3. you're big enough a nerd to read this whole thing.

i hang on your every word of course i read the whole thing. thank you for affirming my manhood. would you be my particular friend?

why would you want to be a man if you are a woman? celebrate it, don't deny it.

idiot.

Pantie Check. What a bunch of freaks.

you're ridiculous

but she's right, you are ridiculous.

ADD kicked in after the third paragraph... but this is funny... "anyone who has engaged in homosexual activity or has strong homosexual inclinations," should not be admitted to a seminary." now where are all the guilt-ridden homos gonna turn when they want to "change"? they already kick us out of church... and funny enough i was talking with a friend today about how some nuns have a better sex life than she does... i think i traumatized her...

you actually read that whole thing? i got bored after reading the headline

you need to learn how to pay attention.