Posted on 09/26/2005 6:40:28 AM PDT by marshmallow
BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Several reports this week predict Pope Benedict XVI will approve a document being prepared that would bar all homosexuals from becoming Catholic priests -- this just before Vatican representatives begin long-planned visits, inspections, at every American Catholic seminary where, among other things, the visitors are expected to review each school's policy for screening out applicants who are gay or have even a homosexual orientation. There are about 4,500 seminarians.
Judy Valente has our story.
JUDY VALENTE: These candidates for the priesthood have just arrived at Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Maryland. The seminary is nearly 200 years old and one of the largest in the country. Like other seminaries and schools of theology, it will soon be visited for several days by one of the teams of American bishops and priests selected by the Vatican.
Monsignor STEVEN ROHLFS (Rector, Mount St. Mary's Seminary, Maryland): They've been asked to interview all of the seminarians. Every single one. They've been asked to interview all of our faculty, all of the administration. We had to provide all the course work that we teach -- all the outlines, all the bibliographies. They'll interview all of the professors.
VALENTE: The teams will also look for "evidence of homosexuality." Archbishop Edwin O'Brien is coordinator of the seminary review.
Archbishop EDWIN O'BRIEN: We don't want our people to think, as our culture is now saying, that there's really no difference whether one is gay or straight, is homosexual or heterosexual. We think for our vocation that there is a difference, and our people expect to have a male priesthood that is -- sets a strong role model of maleness.
VALENTE: Father Robert Silva is president of a national organization of priests.
(To Rev. Silva): How can anyone determine with certainty that a man is a homosexual?
Reverend ROBERT SILVA (President, National Federation of Priests' Councils): You can't. Going in and saying, "This man is homosexual" -- I just think that that's impossible to do.
VALENTE (To Rev. Silva): Given the current state of research?
Rev. SILVA: Exactly.
VALENTE: In the past, many seminaries focused on the intellectual and theological training of priests rather than their personal development. Experts say that as a result, some priests left the seminary ill equipped to live out the celibate ministry required of them.
That led to problems, including the sex abuse scandal. The Church has not linked child sex abusers with homosexuality, but the scandal did raise questions about the number of homosexuals in the priesthood and in seminaries.
PATRICIA KELLY (Psychologist): The Church, fortunately, has had this huge wake-up call that has put it in a place where it says: "Whoa, we got to ask the right questions, and we can't be afraid of the answers." And that's very much happening.
VALENTE: Patricia Kelly, in consultation with dioceses, does psychological assessments of young men who are candidates for admission to seminary. She says there is now more discussion of sexuality in the context of living a celibate life.
Dr. KELLY: We're looking at the whole person, and sexuality is a big part of it. We are really looking at how this person not only has respect for himself, but has respect for other people and understands his sexuality.
VALENTE: The assessments include FBI background checks as well as questions about spending habits and past relationships. And yet ...
Msgr. ROHLFS: Psychology is a very inexact science. They can raise flags, but they can't tell you for certain that someone is like this. They can just alert you to the possibility that there's a problem here.
VALENTE: The Church calls homosexuality "intrinsically disordered" and actually, since the 1960s it has had a policy that homosexual men not be ordained. But in the 1970s, says Archbishop O'Brien, shifting moral standards and the rush of men leaving the priesthood led some seminaries to ignore that policy. And a few years ago, a leading seminary rector even wrote of the "growing perception ... that the priesthood is, or is becoming, a gay profession."
Archbishop O'BRIEN: There was doubt in the Church as to would there be permanent celibacy -- about what celibacy entailed. And we were getting some people, ordained priests, who were confused and ambiguous in what their commitment was. The bar was there, but the institutions thought, well, we can lower it a little bit just for a while. We want to be sure that's not the case today, especially after the scandals that we've been through.
VALENTE: At Mount St. Mary's, the message is clear: the bar is high.
Reverend BRETT BRANNEN (Mount St. Mary's Seminary) (During Homily): We cannot release you to care for the souls of God's people until we're convinced that you have been formed into the image of Jesus. And that's why we have to turn up the heat. We have to turn up the heat to prepare you for this life.
Reverend JOHN DIETRICH (Mount St. Mary's Seminary) (To Seminarians): It is also about letting go -- a lot of letting go. Bad habits must die. Attitudes that are not helpful must die. Anything that hinders your union with Christ is to be gotten rid of.
Reverend DON SENIOR (President, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago): What are we doing to prepare people with human and sexual development? That they're healthy people, really, I think, is what the concern is.
VALENTE: Father Don Senior is president of Catholic Theological Union, a school of theology in Chicago.
Rev. SENIOR: Are the people responsible for their training sufficiently in touch with what's happening in the lives of these young men to realize, yes, we can send them out into the Church and not fear that harm is going to be done?
VALENTE: Keeping potential pedophiles out of the priesthood is one thing. The new policy on homosexuals promises to be more difficult.
Rev. SILVA: Men of homosexual orientation are going to go to the seminary. There's no question about it. They're simply not going to say that that's their orientation.
VALENTE (To Rev. Silva): You would say that it might force homosexuals underground in the seminary?
Rev. SILVA: Oh, it's not "might." It will.
VALENTE (To Rev. Silva): How do you think such a policy, if it comes to pass, would impact homosexual men who are already priests?
Rev. SILVA: It seems to be challenging not their behavior, but it seems to be saying that their person, that their very identity is called into question. At this point, in their 40s, 50s, 60s, they're saying, "What is the Church telling me as a human being when it questions my very identity? I've lived a celibate life for this many years."
VALENTE: Father Silva warns that the new Church policy could have a profound impact on the already existing shortage of priests, not only by excluding certain men from the seminary, but by forcing ordained men out.
Rev. SILVA: That person has to make a choice. He either goes underground and says, "I'm not gay," or he leaves. If he leaves we lose, because many, many of these priests are very good priests. Human persons have dignity, whether they be homosexual or heterosexual. And we have to have a tremendous respect for the dignity of the individuals that we're talking about.
VALENTE: Amid all the controversy over homosexuality, Father Rohlfs at Mount St. Mary's emphasizes that the most important function of seminaries is simply to form holy priests.
Msgr. ROHLFS: That's probably the single most important thing that a parish expects of a priest. They want him to be a man of God who can teach them how to pray well. They also want him to know the faith. They want him to be able to communicate it to them in a way that can inspire them.
VALENTE: The Vatican's review of American seminaries is expected to take as long as two years. For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, this is Judy Valente in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
ABERNETHY: By one estimate, American seminaries are now turning out only 35 to 45 percent of the new priests the Church needs.
1) Silva is a shirtlifter. Guaranteed.
2) How does Silva know who's homosexual and who's not? If we take his statement that "many of these priests are very good priests" at face value, it means he knows who the shirtlifters are. Now he's just informed us that it's impossible to pick them out in the seminary yet he claims to know them. Strange, yes? Surely a priest who is truly celibate does not make an issue of his sexuality and therefore would be undetected by Silva's gaydar.
In fact, Silva is tacitly admitting what we all know already. The existence of a homosexual network.
On a separate point, Fr. Brett Brannen quoted in the above piece, is the vice-rector and new to Mt. St. Mary's. Until June of this year, he was my pastor, here in Augusta, GA. He is early 40s, a wonderful, holy priest and he will straighten this seminary out on his own. The apostolic visitors need to be thorough, I know, but in my opinion they could give Mt. St. Mary's a pass and move straight on to some of the other dens of iniquity which need a thorough fumigation.
Be prepared for the massive anti-Catholic venom to be spouted from all sides - especially from the radical leftists and the bigots here.
IF the Church was "made by man" HOW could it have lasted this many thousands of years? yes, there are periods of "man-made imperfections" but overall there is nothing that a human can create that can last over two thousand years of intense attacks bent on destruction of a single Entity.
the media will produce many "catholic priests" (small letters intentional) that are against the Vatican's decree - which is no more than re-affirming the Bible.
And of course, the standard "catholic" politicians will be out in force to demonize "their" church.
I don't think the inspectors will find much to worry about at Mount St Mary's either. It is a very solid place. Perhaps they are visiting it early to have a model in mind of a healthy, orthodox, American seminary to compare to some of the pink palaces they'll later find.
I anticipate Mundelein doing well as well.
The former Associate Pastor of my parish, who is now our priest-in-residence, went to Mount St. Mary's. He is very orthodox and right on as they come. If he's an example of those who went to, and currently attend, Mount St. Mary's, then that is one seminary the Vatican doesn't need to worry about. From what I've heard, it and Christendom College are two of the finest seminaries around.
Mundelein has improved greatly since Cardinal George has gotten involved.
Cardinal George is viewed like a rock-star there. I guess he is there quite a bit more than I would have expected.
Christendom College isn't a Seminary. It is, however, home to the Notre Dame Graduate School, from which several Arlington Diocese priests (including my pastor) hold a MA in Theology. However, most NDGS students are lay people (married folks, a few singles, and Sisters.)
That's good to know. It got ripped pretty severely in Goodbye, Good Men, and seemed to come up occasionally (unfavourably) in Ungodly Rage.
Thanks for the correction!
The seminarians I've come across who are from Mundelein are right on. Friends with one of them who is the definition of the John Paul Priest. Devoted, Orthodox, Faithful, Holy. He will make a wonderful priest and hopefully, one day, a Bishop. I can hope?
Not sure about the status of Mundelein these days. I know it has been a bastion of the gay network in years past.
Also saw just a few days ago where one seminarian at Mundelein involved two others in a fatal car wreck with alcohol involved... such a waste.
Joliet, from what I understand, is still hostile territory for the straight male seminarian...
Did Bob Abernathy have on representatives from the Baptist and Evangelical seminaries? They don't accept homosexual men. Why isn't the MSM making a big fuss over them!
I don't know that "hostile" would be the right way to characterize it. Maybe "non-existent"?
There is no seminary located in or affiliated with the Diocese of Joliet. They send their candidates to seminaries in Missouri, Minnesota and Michigan, as well as Mundelein.
That might well be a strategy. I thought it very odd that they were starting here with the Aquinas Institute when it's known to be in good shape. The seminary here is alright as well. We certainly can't say the same for some other places.
Mundelein still has two big problems; the "Cat Walk" (the gay "wing" of the seminary), and it uses Fr. Raymond Brown's stuff for scriptural study.
It is getting better, but I do know the vocations director of the diocese of Lafayette (In.) will NOT send his men there.
Woops! Shows you what I know about my own diocese. I thought the St. Charles Borromeo Center was a seminary, as well. Thanks for the clarification...
It's about time.
Shirt lifter? To me Silva sounds like a crotch-grabber. The media is rushing to seek these guys out - but quite frankly, I don't think that either O'Brien or the Pope give a damn. I certainly hope they don't.
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