Testing For Deep-seated Tendencies

From the Church Times:

CANDIDATES for the priesthood in the Roman Catho­lic Church are to undergo psycho­logical screening that will identify “deep-seated homo­sexual tenden­cies”, the Vatican has announced,

Gay men thus identified will be deemed unsuitable as seminarians, even if they have no difficulty in re­maining celibate, says the document from the Congregation for Catholic Education, Guidelines for the Use of Psychology in the Admission and Formation of Candidates for the Priesthood.

Such screening, it says, would help avoid what the report calls “tragic situations” caused by psychological defects, an undoubted reference to the damaging and costly number of sexual-abuse cases exposed in recent years.

This is such a vicious load of crap, that I'm left outraged and nearly speechless, but not completely. Since the document is not yet fully translated into English, should we give the Vatican the benefit of doubt that the "tragic situations" do not refer to child abuse by gay priests, but rather to CHILD ABUSE BY PRIESTS WHO HAVE DEEP-SEATED TENDENCIES TO ABUSE CHILDREN?

Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, who presented the report, is reported to have described homo­sexuality as “a deviation, an irregu­larity, a wound” even for celibate gay men.

More from Cardinal Grocholewski in The Catholic Herald:

Cardinal Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, said "The candidate does not necessarily have to practice homosexuality. He can even be without sin. But if he has this deeply seated tendency, he cannot be admitted to priestly ministry precisely because of the nature of the priesthood, in which a spiritual paternity is carried out. Here we are not talking about whether he commits sins, but whether this deeply rooted tendency remains."

He added: "It's not simply a question of observing celibacy as such. In this case, it would be a heterosexual tendency, a normal tendency.

"In a certain sense, when we ask why Christ reserved the priesthood to men, we speak of this spiritual paternity, and maintain that homosexuality is a type of deviation, a type of irregularity, as explained in two documents of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

"Therefore it is a type of wound in the exercise of the priesthood, in forming relations with others. And precisely for this reason we say that something isn't right in the psyche of such a man. We don't simply talk about the ability to abstain from these kinds of relations."

There is so much wrong with Cardinal Groch's statement, that I don't know where to begin. His words are cruel, insulting, and unpastoral in the extreme. What about his responsibility to exercise "spiritual paternity" for the gay men in his church?

Thus, a priest is not capable of "spiritual paternity" unless he is robustly heterosexual, a true manly man. Of course, the idea of Jesus as exercising "spiritual paternity" doesn't seem quite trinitarian to me. I don't know about you, but I've always thought of Jesus as more of a brother than a father.

In the light of recent history, will the candidates be tested for deep-seated tendencies to child abuse? Why the focus on homosexuality? In the US church, which is already suffering from a severe shortage of priests, and where the estimates of the percentage of gay priests range from 10% to 40%, the result will be a large drop in the numbers of candidates considered suitable for seminary and, I would think, a large drop in the numbers of men who present themselves as candidates.

It seems to me that "something isn't right in the psyche of such a man" as Cardinal Groch and the men in the Vatican who make these decisions. Of course, I could be wrong.

Now, I'll stop, because I seem to be babbling.

One more thing. What about shallow-seated homosexual tendencies?

H/T to Lapin.