Vatican to use psychologists to weed out homosexual priests

[Donald Ian Rankin]

Homosexuality was a "deviation" that must be rooted out in would-be clergy early on in order to prevent "tragedies", the Vatican decreed in new guidelines on the issue.

Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Catholic Education Congregation, said that a celibate candidate with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" should be barred "not because he commits a sin, but because homosexuality is a deviation, an irregularity, a wound" that would prevent him from fulfilling his duties.

The guidelines, approved by Pope Benedict XVI, are designed to prevent the sort of sex scandals involving paedophile priests which have rocked the Catholic Church in recent years, triggering law suits costing hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.

The decree appears to ignore the consensus among sex abuse experts that homosexuals are no more likely to molest children than heterosexuals.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/3329225/Vatican-to-use-psychologists-to-weed-out-homosexual-priests.html

[wtmusic]

1. If I didn't know truth was stranger than fiction

I would think this was Monty Python.

[amdezurik]

2. well, yeah they gotta keep those "celebate" priests

"pure" ya know...

[moggie]

3. I've got a better solution to those paedophile scandals

Women priests. Women are far less likely than men to molest kids. How about it, Vatican? If you're serious about getting rid of your abusers, rather that just demonising gay men, you should start appointing women.

[moobu2]

11. Nuns have abused and sexually molested children.

They may molest less, I don’t know. They probably physically and mentally abuse children just as much though.

[Turbineguy]

4. I think it's a ruse

to weed out paedophiles.

[underdoggie]

5. Thou shalt infallibly molest homos

Instead of placing his holy faith in the "pseudo-science" of Psychologism, why don't de pope, who art a pre-approved card member of Heaven in all his glorifed infallibleness, rely on the "pseudo-mumbo-jumbo" miracle of humble Jescusian prayer.

For verily, let faith conquer science" to unearth the cream of the crop of them who art the most abominables of the most abominables.

[cosmik debris]

6. So your little boys will be safe, but your little girls...

Not so much.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

7. I don't think that follows actually.

I'm a long way from an expert (thankfully), but my understanding is that which gender(s) of child molesters go after doesn't correlate that strongly with their preference in adults, if they have one.

[cosmik debris]

9. You may be right,

but it gives the appearance that they are only weeding out those priests who are attracted to other males rather than weeding out the priests who are attracted to children.

I understood the implications that homosexuality and pedophilia are linked, and that the sex scandals of the church only included molestation of males. Both of those implications are false.

[varkam]

8. I'm thinking of a four letter word for the Vatican. Can you guess what it is?

:argh:

[Goblinmonger]

15. Fine? Good? Star? Fame?

Or are you going a different direction with this?

[varkam]

16. Okay - you caught me. It isn't *exactly* four letters.

:rofl:

[CatholicEdHead]

10. Homosexuality does not equal pedophilia

Of course nobody at that level of the Vatican gets it. Bishops are either upward looking or downward looking. The Downward ones plateau out but look to the world around them. The upward ones move up and never look down again.

[elshiva]

12. I am so fucking tired of this shit.

Why? WHY? When are they ever going to learn? HOMOSEXUALITY IS NOT PEDOPHILIA!
I'm sure when a priest rapes a little girl he is acting out of perfectly healthy heterosexuality, now, isn't he? :sarcasm:

[moobu2]

13. They don’t care.

The point is to deflect blame from their own perverse ideology. Blaming the evil homosexuals means they don’t have to take responsibility.

[elshiva]

17. This is all too true. I don't see any hope of them changing and/or

taking responsibility.

[knitter4democracy]

14. They can kiss my ass.

Pope Maledict is just using the pedophilia scandal to get rid of good priests who happen to be gay. Who cares if they're gay?! A good priest is too important to kick out for something as stupid as bigotry. This whole thing has nothing to do with the pedophiles in the clergy--it's all about homophobia and needing an excuse to purge the ranks.

[elshiva]

18. Also it hurts priests who are vocally pro-gay, whether

these priests are gay or not.

[knitter4democracy]

19. Very true. It's disgusting.

I'm convinced that they're using the pedophilia scandal to purge the ranks of anyone they think might be a liability in the future, anyone who's more liberal in theology, and anyone they've got a vendetta against. The Vatican does this kind of crap every once in awhile, but Lord knows they should've done it earlier with the monsters they kept moving around so they could hurt more kids.

[elshiva]

20. Ding! Ding! Ding! You've got it!

"they should've done it earlier with the monsters they kept moving around so they could hurt more kids." THAT IS THE PROBLEM! The bishops moved these rapists/molestors around. They are not punished or even defrocked. They belong in jail.

[knitter4democracy]

21. I agree. They should be in jail as accessories.

I still cannot figure out what the hell they were thinking. Why, oh why, would they think it okay to just move a predator around instead of calling the cops?

[CatholicEdHead]

22. They let Church Doctrines go to their head

In Seminary many are told the Church is a "perfect society", hence it cannot do no wrong and why many take this to an belief in an institutional infallibility. That mixed in with the Sacrament of Reconciliation of wiping all sins away and the urge they are exceptional and to be not of this world and you have the perfect formula to lock up the doors and keep things in the house.

By blaming this entire crisis on the gays (and going after them in every possible way in real life (no marriage, adoption, not even communion)) they are trying to deflect but taking the entire institution down with it as many people see through this.

/glad in retrospect to be banned from the Catholic Answers forum

[knitter4democracy]

23. Even being taught that doesn't mean they should believe it.

Thank goodness the religion teachers I used to teach with in a couple of Catholic schools in Cleveland never fell for that crap. Of course, they're more liberal, and a couple fought off the local Opus Dei group from firing them, but they never would've gone for that argument at all.

[Rabrrrrrr]

24. One would think, after all the scandals, they'd check for pedophile priests first.

But, that's the Catholic Church for you, always a few hundred centuries behind, always on the wrong side.