VATICAN PLANS GAY TESTS
The Catholic Church says that candidates for the priesthood should undergo psychological tests to screen out men with homosexual tendencies.
The statement was made in a document issued by the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education; adding that early detection of “sometimes pathological” issues among recruits was vital.
“Such areas of immaturity would include strong affective dependencies; notable lack of freedom in relations; excessive rigidity of character; lack of loyalty; uncertain sexual identity; deep-seated homosexual tendencies, etc. If this should be the case, the path of formation will have to be interrupted.”
The document said that not only should candidates be tested on a case-by-case basis for being gay but also to make sure that they are capable of abstaining from sexual activity.
Outside specialists could be called in to conduct the tests when seminary rectors did not have the required expertise.
According to the document, such tests will help the Vatican avoid ‘tragic experiences’; a reference to high profile sexual abuse scandals within the Church in recent years – which it has linked to homosexuality.
WOW!!!. Wow!!! The catholic church has just alienated about 5-10% of its members and nearly half of its priests. Jesus took in St Paul, responsible for the persecution and murder of many christians, a corrupt tax collector (Mathew), a former prostitute (Mary Magdalene)… and now the Church He founded has decided to exclude candidates because they are attracted to the same sex??? Do they really think that all those paedophile priests were gay? Well I say: F@ck the catholic church and F@ck the Bigot pope. I hate this church with a passion!
A Former catholic.
What about the calling. How do u test if someone is gay or not . and after your findings u cut the person from the calling. Nobody is perfect. we are all siners.
biased info. Its really quite amazing how this website bends the truth to further gay propoganda. Don’t get me wrong I am gay, this article is taken out of context completely. Pope Benedict formely known as Cardinal Ratzinger was the one responsiple defining the donctrine of the Church regarding Homosexuals and it by no means preaches exclusion from the faith.
The Psycological tests are meant to pick up those with peadophile tendacies not as a witch hunt against homosexuals.
Furthermore dont trust anything news related on this site, in most cases its complete bullshit.
Ignorant. Seth, please could you let Reuters, the BBC, CBS news, The Seattle Times, The Catholic News Service, MSNBC and the hundreds of other international news outlets that have reported on this story – on the same lines as it is here – that they are all biased and are reporting “bullshit?”
Where do you get off telling people not to trust news on this site? As someone who is a news freak and reads many newspapers and sites, Mambaonline is always spot on with its news. You speak loudly for someone who is clearly so ignorant…
Pure ignorance!. Seth, please allow me to point out two inaccuracies in your comment:
1. You say: “…it by no means preaches exclusion from the faith”. True. It does not exclude any homosexual from the faith. It just excludes all homosexuals from being ordained priests. These are two different issues.
2. You say: ” The psychological tests are meant to pick up paedophile tendencies…” . False! It is meant to detect homosexual tendencies. If you read the Instruction carefully, section 3 states: “If a candidate practices homosexuality or presents deep-seated homosexual tendencies, his spiritual director … has the duty to dissuade him in conscience from proceeding towards ordination…. It would be gravely dishonest for a candidate to hide his own homosexuality in order to proceed…” So, quite ironically, the catholic church wants these gay guys to out themselves so that they can be prevented from becoming priests. What they are basically saying is: Out the gays so that we can exclude them. If this isn’t a witch hunt – what is?
See? Mambaonline did report correctly. If you want more info go on to http://www.vatican.va and type in homosexuality in their search engine and you will find real bullshit.
conspiracy. the pope is a lizard person… look at his creepy little reptilian eyes…
no really…. BIG lizard trying to take over the world.
For Seth. Yes the catholic church does not preach ‘Exclusion” if you are gay….but according to them you must never act on the fact that you are gay!! In other words…you must remain celibate for ever more!! So then…why do you think there are so many gay priests out there!!
And before you get on your high horse with me..I am a 50yrs + italian catholic woman, married to a catholic man. The younger of my two sons is gay & was treated like shit by the catholic church that he was an active member of and to add insult to injury one of the priests at this very same catholic church had openly told him that he himself was gay!!
My son is now a member of the methodist church who welcomed both him & his partner with open arms & who’s minister conducted the religious part of their marriage ceremony recently!
Don’t preach to me about the catholic church, they have a lot to answer for apart from their stance on homosexuality! e.g. Preaching NO to contraception when millions in our world live in poverty & are dying of famine. Shall i go on….???
No church/religion is perfect I know but this latest plan of their’s to test prospective priests for homosexual tendencies just astounds me! If they did away with this ridiculous “celibacy” nonsense they would encourage more genuinely good people to join the church & be pastors. Please don’t tell me that pastors of other religions who are married & have families do not do their job well??
The catholic church needs to move out of the dark ages & see the needs of the people…how many of those cardinals, bishops etc in the Vatican have actually worked on a mission staion in darkest Africa?? Maybe a couple of years there would make them think twice about their archaic views!
Do you actually read what you write about?. Hi Seth, this particular news story is not three years old and has been widely reported around the world in the last few days.
The information on the tests and new guidelines came to light after a news conference held by the secretary of the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education – Monsignor Jean-Louis Brugues. This news conference was held last week – not three years ago.
The document you refer to is a different document released in 2005, which also caused a huge stink.
And even that 2005 document is obviously anti-gay, stating:
“If a candidate practises homosexuality or presents deep-seated homosexual tendencies, his spiritual director as well as his confessor have the duty to dissuade him in conscience from proceeding towards ordination.”
Did you actually read it? Are you really trying to tell us that the Catholic Church is not homophobic – at the very least on an official Vatican level?