St. Louis seminary to be among first evaluated in gay inquiry

Bellevill.com ^ | 09-16-05 | AP

[Salvation]

Posted on Fri, Sep. 16, 2005

St. Louis seminary to be among first evaluated in gay inquiry

Associated Press

ST. LOUIS - A Catholic seminary in St. Louis will be among the first in the country to be visited by Vatican officials seeking evidence of homosexuality.

Bishop Michael Burbidge of Philadelphia will lead a five-member team that will visit Aquinas Institute of Theology Sept. 25-29, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Friday. The purpose, according to the Vatican, is to "examine the criteria for admission of candidates and the programs of human formation and spiritual formation aimed at ensuring that they faithfully live chastely for the Kingdom."

Seminaries across the U.S. will be visited through next spring. St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke and Belleville, Ill., Bishop Edward K. Braxton will be among the 117 bishops and seminary staff sent to the seminaries.

Visits will involve interviews with faculty, staff, seminarians and recent alumni, and will be overseen by the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education.

On Monday, Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, who oversees the evaluation effort, told The Associated Press that most gay candidates for the priesthood struggle to remain celibate and the church must restrict their enrollment.

O'Brien, said the church "really must stay on the safe side. ... The same-sex attractions have gotten us into some legal problems."

He told the AP that the church is not "hounding" gays out of the priesthood, but wants to enroll seminarians who can maintain their vows of celibacy.

The catechism of the Roman Catholic Church calls homosexual acts "acts of grave depravity" and "intrinsically disordered" because they "close the sexual act to the gift of life." But the catechism also says that although the inclination to homosexuality is "objectively disordered," homosexuals "must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity."

The Vatican ordered the seminary review three years ago in response to the clergy sex abuse crisis to look for anything that contributed to the scandal, which has led to more than 11,000 abuse claims in the last five decades.

 

[Salvation]

For your information and discussion.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

"Gotten us into some legal problems..." WHAT? The church still doesn't get it! They just , all the way from the Vatican, do not have the understanding what the sex abuses in the church have done not only to the victims, but to the parishoners.

[Jeff Chandler]

Oh, they get it. That's what the seminary evaluation is all about.

If gays are disappointed that they can't become Catholic priests, perhaps a career with the NYTIMES would be equally fulfilling.

[livius]

The thing that is good about this is that he is talking specifically about homosexuals, not pedophiles. In other words, the problem has been identified, since most of the priests who caused the "legal problems" were not specifically pedophiles, but homosexuals who focused on older boys and teenagers, a very common attraction among homosexual men. There appear to have been a handful of specifically pedophile priests who preyed on young children of either sex, but with the vast majority, this was not the case.

O'Brien is a tough cookie and while his speech may not sound particularly sympathetic, remember that he is addressing the press, which is already depicting this as the second coming of the Inquisition. He's explaining quite factually why the homosexual culture has to be rooted out of the seminaries.

[Desdemona]

Minor problem: the actual seminary here is Kenrick-Glennon. The Aquinas Institute is a Dominican graduate school affiliated with St. Louis University. It's not really a seminary. All reports from people I trust are that the teaching there is solid. It's not one of the problems.

For more info, plop this in the address line on your browser:

http://www.ai.edu/glance/index.php

[dsc]

Well, Abp. O'Brien has been heading the Military Diocese for some time now, so one hopes he has the latest Aegis system phased array gaydar with optional "fry target" setting.

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

Don't forget the Vulcan cannon that can destroy incoming "targets."

[dsc]

The Vulcan is actually a gatling gun that fires depleted uranium bullets. The theory is that it throws up a wall of heavy objects for the missile to fly into and ruin itself.

[Salvation]

Thanks for the clarification.

[Salvation]

Aquinas Institute to Host Visitors for Seminary Examination

Aquinas Institute to Host Visitors for Seminary Examination

September 14, 2005

A team of five led by Bishop Michael Burbidge of Philadelphia will visit Aquinas Institute of Theology from Sept. 25 to Sept. 29 to evaluate how the school prepares candidates for the priesthood. The Apostolic Visit, conducted by the Congregation for Catholic Education of the Holy See, is among the first of more than 200 to seminaries throughout the United States.

Visitors will examine the admissions process for candidates to the priesthood. They also will examine how seminaries and schools such as Aquinas Institute foster the intellectual and moral development of priesthood candidates and ensure the men are prepared to live chastely.

The visit will include an evaluation of each school’s course catalog and course syllabi and interviews with faculty members, priesthood candidates and graduates who recently were ordained. Findings will be submitted to the Vatican.

The Apostolic Visitation of U.S. Seminaries and Houses of Formation has just begun nationwide. Teams of bishops and seminary personnel will conduct visits through Spring 2006 at an estimated 230 schools of theology, college-level seminaries, houses of formation and other schools that form priests. Members of the team visiting Aquinas Institute include a seminary professor, campus chaplain, parish pastor and director of religious studies, also at a seminary.

The process is the result of a meeting in 2002 between U.S. bishops and Vatican officials who met to respond to the crisis created when a clergy sexual abuse case in Boston led to revelations of abuses by priests throughout the United States. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops pledged cooperation with the visits in the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the document drafted in response to the crisis.

The Instrumentum laboris, the working document for the visitation team, is available to provide necessary information to ordained graduates who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Members of the media should call the Department of Commmunications at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops at 202.541.3320.

[Salvation]

A little confusing there on whether they are hosting the examination crew or being examined.

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

I know, it is a pretty cool weapon. I know for a brief time they were flirting with making an Army Variant for Air Defense. Then again, don't have to worry about the Al-Qaeda Air Force in Iraq.

[Desdemona]

The newpaper here even got it all out of whack. It's not like we weren't expecting it.

[JohnRoss]

Perhaps the next thing the Vatican ought to do is make membership in Dignity an excommunicatable offense and simply formally declare their supporters schismatic and heretical.

[marshmallow]

[dsc]

I don't see the "weapons free" light or the "fire" button.

[JohnnyZ]

remember that he is addressing the press, which is already depicting this as the second coming of the Inquisition. He's explaining quite factually why the homosexual culture has to be rooted out of the seminaries.

In 5 years I hope to be reading breathless accounts from the NYTimes of how the rejection of gay seminarians has contributed to the "priest shortage", and about how the intolerant hierarchy is killing the Church by drumming out candidates who don't toe the line on debatable matters like sin, salvation, and priestesses.

Ah, we can only hope!

[zerosix]

How about "gotten us into some legal problems" with GOD?

These people have veered so far off the reservation that they no longer recognize whom they are serving as under-shepherds for (hint: a GOD that does not forget sin, unless it is truly repented from and a moral outcome results from that repentance; neither of which appear in this statement.)

No sincere believer can accept the concept that "leading little children to sin"; is not merely a "legal problem"; it is a sign of moral corruption and with that attitude in mind, how can any serious believing Catholic presume to place any faith it what the Catholic Church says?

[ArrogantBustard]

remember that he is addressing the press, which is already depicting this as the second coming of the Inquisition.

With all due respect, the "second coming of the Inquisition" is precisely what's needed, here.

[livius]

I just hope they don't get the "comfy chair" version!