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Another very immature screed. I think Sinkspur has a point.

Immature? Immature? Perhaps that gent needed some more psychological counseling like this fellow?

Unfortunately, it's all true!
Submitted by: Joseph Martinka, 19 March 2002, 9:17 a.m.

"Unfortunately, these allegations both inside today's seminaries and within the walls of today's churches are all too true. As shocking as much of this seems to those on the outside, those of us who have been "on the inside" know all too well what really goes on in the seminaries of the USA. I attended one year of seminary at Saint Andrew's Seminary in New Jersey. Although I was studying for a local religious order, I was sent to the diocesan seminary where I was to achieve my education and live among the students there and then on weekends be reunited with the "community" on weekends. What I heard and saw and experienced behind the walls of the seminary was more than I ever expected to see in a lifetime.

All of what has been said of clergy supporting the viewing of indecent movies, to the sanctioning and outright acceptance and banner waving for homosexuals and lesbians in places of power in the Church--all of these things were talked about in the seminary both among the students and also by the rector himself, who is now a bishop. I think what was more surprising to me, is that the more people I told of the things that I has experienced, the more I got the idea that these things were acceptable and normal for young men, many including myself who were just out of high school at the time, and that if we were in any way "scandalized" by these actions, that we were the ones with the psychological issues and that we were to be sent to the psych office for evaluation, and if we did not "pass the test" put forth to us, then we were "politely asked to leave."

My first and third (of three) psychological exams were given by lay associates. I am guessing that the "priest shortage" has caused them to fall back on lay people to give the exams. On two of the three occasions, I was told point blank that my results stated that I was "a tad too heavy on the Conservative side," and that the recommendation from the diocese was to "wait two years, live my life, find myself, and re-apply." It was at this point that I looked at the option of possibly joining a religious order. However, they too had the idea that there was something wrong with me, because they too felt the need to send me to a psychologist for testing and when the same results came back, it was their "plan" to "mold me into a different person."

All of the stories, all of the accusations of todays changing clergy, the "reforms in the Church, the cases going to court now, they are all caused by the same dysfunction in the Church today. We no longer want holy priests, we no longer want good priests, we want "Play-dough priests." These priests can be molded into the likeness of society. The Church no longer dictates what is best for society, now the tables have turned and "society knows best". I am no theologian, but I do know this, the "priest shortage" is the biggest ploy to hit the Church since the story of Pope Joan. And like Pope Joan this priest shortage does not exist, nor has it ever existed. It is a fool's game to try and turn the Church into a circus run by those in power who have their own secrets to hide. When Vatican II "opened the windows to let a breath of fresh air into the Church," it choked up a lot of people in power and now they are being forced to come clean, the stories are coming out and the truth is setting us free. Now maybe we will see that the changes that really need to be made are as close to us as a Council of Trent part II or a Jerusalem III. These priests that come out of toady's seminaries are not shepherds, they are wolves led to deceive rather than to bless, they will cause the sheep to be lost rather than found.

We need to vacuum out the seminaries and return the Faith and the morals, the sanity and the sanctity back into the seminaries so that in the four years that a man will be trained in the seminary, those four years will be in return a lifetime of holy service to Holy Mother Church."

The activities these young men describe are positively Stalin-esque. And yet you call THEM immature? You must be joking.