Candidates for Catholic Clergy to be Screened for Gay 'Tendencies'

Homosexuality has not been regarded by psychologists to be a form a mental pathology since 1973; none the less, the Catholic church is moving ahead with psychological testing to root out gays from the pool of seminary candidates, relying on a claim that "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" constitute a "psychic disturbance" that makes a gay candidate "unsuitable" for the demands of Church life.

An Australian Catholic seminary is already forging ahead with the testing.

A March 27 article at anti-gay Web publication LifeSiteNews.com reported that the story had been covered in the Melbourne Herald Sun that same day.

According to the Sun article, the spokesperson for Melbourne's Archdiocese, James O'Farrell, said that Corpus Christi seminary would begin subjecting candidates for the seminary to the tests, which the Vatican had recommended in the wake of the pedophile priest scandal, even though the majority of pedophiles self-identify as heterosexual.

The article said that the tests will not only identify candidates with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies," but also determined who among the prospective seminarians, gay or straight, will be unable to abide by the requirement of celibacy without undue stress.

The Melbourne Herald Sun article quoted Hayley Conway, spokesperson for the GLBT equality group the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, who said the church's recommendation for such testing was "dangerous and offensive."

"They seem to be moving backwards in a lot of ways which is really unfortunate," noted Hayley, "especially for those who are Catholic and out, and there are a lot of them already struggling."

Added the group's spokesperson, "If the plan is to root out pedophilia or child molestation, targeting people with homosexual tendencies isn't the way to go about it."

In 2005 the Vatican issued a ban on gay seminarians; then, in late 2008, Pope Benedict gave the go-ahead to Vatican-issued guidelines that advise seminaries to subject candidates who might suffer from "psychic disturbances" or "grave immaturity," in order to screen out those who are "unsuitable" for life as a Catholic clergyman.

LifeSiteNews.com reported that the testing would not be forced on candidates, but would be a means to identify those with "excessive affective dependency, disproportionate aggression, incapacity to be faithful to obligations, incapacity for openness and trust, inability to cooperate with authority and confused sexual identity," in the document's words; moreover, testing would be meant to spare the oath of celibacy for those to whom it would be "a burden so heavy that it compromises... affective and relational equilibrium."

The article quoted Bishop Julian Porteous, of Syndey, Australia's Seminary of the Good Shepard, who was interviewed on the ABC new program The World Today.

Said Porteous, "We see it as one element to the assessment of the suitability of a candidate for the priesthood and I think it could be a very helpful one, particularly if there are some issues, some concerns to have a psychological test to check whether the person is suitable."

The bishop parsed exactly what the test was looking for, saying, "A person who may have a same sex attraction isn't precluded automatically from the priesthood.

"The question rather is the possibility in some that there is such a deep seated homosexual tendency that it will make it extremely difficult for them to be faithful to their celibate life and also to maintain appropriate relationships with people.

"And that's the question to look at--the capacity of the character to be able to be faithful, to be a faithful priest."

The Vatican's stance, evidently, is that gay men are less suitable for the clergy and for the demands of celibacy due to their very sexuality.

A Nov. 3, 2008 entry at Catholic news blog Whispers in the Loggia reported on the document, which is titled, "Guidelines for the Use of Psychology in the Admission and Formation of Candidates for the Priesthood,", and quoted Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski as saying, "The candidate does not necessarily have to practice homosexuality" to be screened out.

Said Grocholewski, "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."

Continued Grocholewski, "Here we are not talking about whether he commits sins, but whether this deeply rooted tendency remains."

Whispers in the Loggia reported that the Cardinal was asked why the ban applied only to gay men, when heterosexual men, with equally strong sexual urges, would not be screened out due not to their conduct, but rather on the basis of their sexuality.

"Because it's not simply a question of observing celibacy as such," the Cardinal responded.

"In this case, it would be a heterosexual tendency, a normal tendency," the Cardinal continued.

"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," the Cardinal said.

"Therefore [homosexuality] 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," the Cardinal went on.

"We don't simply talk about the ability to abstain from these kinds of relations."