Bishop urges gay ban in clergy; presses for overhaul in screening priests

Boston Globe ^ | 7/19/2004 | Meredith Goldstein

[sinkspur]

Bishop John M. D'Arcy, who in private letters to other church officials as early as 1978 questioned the reassignment of priests accused of sexual misconduct, said yesterday that the church must improve its screening process for accepting seminarians and that homosexuals should be prohibited from being ordained as priests.

"We must be very careful of who we accept in the seminary and who we ordain as priests," D'Arcy told parishioners at Our Lady of the Presentation Church, the Brighton parish in which he grew up. ''It's time to ordain men of quality, not to just look for numbers."

During yesterday's 10 a.m. Mass, D'Arcy, now bishop of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese in Indiana, said the church must look for men whom children can respect -- ''men who would be good husbands, men who would be good fathers," he said.

In an interview after the service, D'Arcy acknowledged that his reference to ''good husbands . . . good fathers" conveyed his belief that only heterosexual men should be allowed to become priests. He said men in the priesthood must embrace celibacy.

To put a gay man in the priesthood, in a mostly male environment, is unfair, given the potential attractions, D'Arcy said. ''We don't put these [heterosexual] men in with attractive women," he said, referring to seminarians. ''You're putting him in with men. It's not fair to him, it's not fair to them, it's not fair to the church."

D'Arcy said that if the church can bring men to seminaries who have the right temperament for the job, those priests will attract more good men to work for the church.

[frnk]

Don't asume. Show the link.

[sinkspur]

I asked you two questions. You can't answer them.

Good night.

[frnk]

OK, OK, I will give you a clue,

Things got serious around 1985:
"There have been an estimated 1,400 sexual abuse lawsuits launched against priests in the United States since 1985."

Here,
http://www.campusprogram.com/reference/en/wikipedia/r/ro/roman_catholic_church_sex_abuse_scandal.html

[sinkspur]

Filing of lawsuits do not equate to when the instances of sexual abuse occurred.

It is a fact that reported sexual abuse instances have been much less in the 1990s than in the 1970s and 1980s (see Michael Rose's "Goodbye, Good Men."). The average age of ordinands in the 1990s was 32 (same source).

Do you think there might be a correlation?

[frnk]

There is a general tendency to start a life of commitment after 30: marriage, academic degree, etc.

[sinkspur]

Thank you.

[frnk]

You're welcome.

Ordination of older men is present reality, and nothing indicates the trend would change any time soon. So...?

I thank you for posting the article. Eventually there will be more bishops like Bishop D'Arcy I think. The Holy Father is probably waiting for the US bishops to realize where the devil dwells and to sprinkle holy water in that exact spot.

I think that's smart.

[Pio]

I think the John Jay report and the Austrian seminary incident put the capstone on the idea of ordaining homsexuals. There's a few, like Cardinal McCarrick, still banging around who are ambivalent about(secretly for) a fudge-packing priesthood but the tide is turning especially in the conservative dioceses.

An interesting case study will be my Diocese of Worcester, MA. We got a new Bishop who is a quite a bit more conservative than his predecessor. Hopefully, there will be an uptick in vocations.

The Bishops need only do two things: 1) ask 2) purge the homosexuals.

[Pio]

Then again, in Massachusetts, "fathers" and "husbands" absolutely includes the Sodomites. Catholic Charities even assists homsexual couples in adopting children. So, perhaps Massachusetts can be excluded from any ray of hope.