Posted on 09/23/2006 8:10:32 AM PDT by NYer
WASHINGTON (AP) – A Vatican-ordered review of Roman Catholic seminaries in the United States has been completed and the results sent to Rome, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says.
Vatican officials sought the evaluation in response to the clergy sex abuse crisis, to look for anything that contributed to the scandal, which erupted in 2002 and battered the church.
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the bishops' conference, said this month that the visits to the nation's seminaries and houses of formation for priests were finished July 14 and the reports were sent to the Vatican.
The agency overseeing the assessment – the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education – is reviewing the data. It was not known how much of the findings will be made public.
The bishops and seminary staff who conducted the onsite reviews gave special attention to what seminarians are taught about chastity and celibacy. The Vatican also directed the evaluators to look for "evidence of homosexuality" in the schools.
Studies commissioned by the bishops' conference have found that the majority of known victims of abuse by priests in the last 50 years were adolescent boys. In response, some Catholics have blamed gay clergy for the scandal; experts on sex offenders contend homosexuals are no more likely than heterosexuals to molest children.
The Congregation for Catholic Education issued a document last year emphasizing church opposition to gay candidates for the priesthood, advising that men with "deep-seated" gay tendencies or who "support so-called gay culture" shouldn't be admitted to seminary or ordained.
More accurately, it should read, "Homosexual experts on sex offenders contend homosexuals are no more likely than heterosexuals to molest children."
. . . and of course the experts were so correct in their earlier conclusion that these sex offenders could be "cured" . . .
The homosexual subculture in certain seminaries is the elephant in the living room that the "experts" don't want to look at.
**said this month that the visits to the nation's seminaries and houses of formation for priests were finished July 14 and the reports were sent to the Vatican.**
My question is this:
If this was all finished in July, why are we just hearing about it in September. Something smells fishy.
**The Congregation for Catholic Education issued a document last year emphasizing church opposition to gay candidates for the priesthood, advising that men with "deep-seated" gay tendencies or who "support so-called gay culture" shouldn't be admitted to seminary or ordained.**
The educators are correct here!
Either the person who composed this paragraph needs to be sent back to 8th grade for comprehensive remediation, or he is a supporter of homosexual activity.
Studies commissioned by the bishops' conference have found...
Well, you need read no further, IMO.
The problem is the American bishops, many of whom are homosexual perverts themselves. Since the bishops ultimately control who enters and who leaves the seminary, these deviates can stack the seminaries with those who tend towards homosexuality and dismiss those who complain about it. The Church will prevail though. I can already see strong signs that this Vatican isn't going to be nearly as liberal as the Vatican under pope JPII was. Change usually comes about slowly, but the homos in the priesthood and seminaries are now worrying about their future in the Church, thank God.
The problem was less the papacy than the American bishops. The death of Cardinal Bernardin in 1996 was a partial turning point. He had a pernicious effect on the American Church and, of course, he had allies in the Vatican who had been entrenched by the time that John Paul II became pope in 1978. To be sure, John Paul was loathe to confront the "counter-church" in the Vatican and elsewhere, but he did persuade Cardinal Ratzinger to stay at his side. The new pope had twenty years to size up the situation. The hatred that liberals have for him is an indication that they fear the worst. Modernists like Mahoney are not outside the loop, although supreme within. But maybe the costs of dealing with the sex crimes will reveal to the world what sort of man he really is.
I don't understand why you feel that Cardinal Bernadin had a pernicious effect on the Catholic Church. Could you please explain?
I see you've been on FR for 2 years. You don't spend much time on the Religion forum do you? First, and least indisputably, Bernadin was responsible for the seamless garment crapola that people like Kennedy, Kerry, and other pro-death pols use to justify their completely non-Catholic outlook on abortion.
More arguably, he was a homosexual who aided and abetted the lavender mafia in the takeover of the American Church. FYI, his accuser, never really recounted his story. He just claimed he no longer could be sure what was real and what was imagined.
I'm sorry but I have trouble believing this about Cardinal Bernadin. Granted there was a huge coverup in the Chicago archdiocese about abusive priests but that also was going on in other states.
Bernardin, the most prestigious of American bishops, diluted the right-to-life cause by confusing other issues with abortion, issues such as the death penalty, under the rubic of the"seamless garment." He was also involved in giving cover to Democratic /Republican politicians like Cuomo who developed this "personally opposed" mantra, which allowed them to give lip service to Catholic doctrine about abortion while at the same time voting for the most extreme measures to protect the unlimited abortion right. He also was involved in the general protection of the pederasts in the Church which have now destroyed the public reputation of Catholic bishops. The list of charges is long.
Excellent point; those groups in the Church with a homosexual agenda used to refer to the Pope, when he as still Cardinal Ratzinger, as "the Rat". Pope Ratzinger is never going to a Pius X, but I believe he's leading the Church in the right direction now. As you said, the liberals hate him, and that's a good thing.
More conservative Catholic who faulted John Paul II as "too easy" on the American liberals don't understand how deeply intrenched they were in the American Church. It has taken almost thirty years now to make a dent in their armor. God in his providence seems to have brought fire and brimestone down on the Church, to burn away the dross. John Paul was able to "stack" the college of Cardinals in such a way to insure they were open to the leadership of Cardinal Ratzinger. But I think that the hand of God is on this new pope; his performance on the world stage at the funeral of John Paul was inspired and, who would have expected it, but this austere scholar has the popular touch. He had the crowd gathered in Rome at "hello," so to speak. The Cardinals simply trotted on behind the popular will. Now we have on the throne Aman who has observed what has happened since the sad closing years of Pope Paul and decided, that something must be done.
This post comes at a good time. I am currently reading a book called "Goodbye, Good Men" by Michael S. Rose, a Conservative Catholic writer. I have only just finished chapter 4, but it is enough to make one's hair stand on end. If what he writes is true, and it certainly has the ring of truth about it, then the homo's are DEEPLY entranched into the U.S. seminary system, as well as the rest of the Church clerical structure, even today. It will take a LONG time to root them out, unless those at the top are willing to start doing wholesale defrockings, and shut down entire seminaries (a few have already been shut down, but that seems like it is only a "good start"). I don't see any signs of this happening at this point.
The picture Rose paints is bleak. Homo's running several seminaries, with hetero's and Conservative Orthodox Catholics being screened out by their "gatekeepers" in the Admissions departments. No wonder we have the problems we have had within the church. According to this book, the homo's are still being ordained, and are well into the power structure of the American Church (who knows how deeply entrencehed they are at the Vatican??). In many seminaries, nuns who want to become priests are in charge of vocations and who gets admitted. They seem to work hand-in-had with the homo's and other liberals.
If his book is accurate, and I am afraid it is, the Church has a long difficult road ahead of it to get rid of these demons, and the fight will last long beyond Benedict's Papacy. I strongly recommend Rose's book to anyone interested in this topic.
God help us all!
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