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September
19, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 16Oakland,
CA
Prelate heading seminary study cautions against ordaining gays
NEW YORK (AP)
— The American prelate overseeing a sweeping Vatican evaluation
of every seminary in the United States told a weekly newspaper that men
with “strong homosexual inclinations” should not be enrolled,
even if they have remained celibate for years.
Archbishop Edwin O’Brien made the comments to the National Catholic
Register newspaper as Roman Catholics await a Vatican document on whether
homosexuals should be barred from the priesthood.
Archbishop O’Brien and several other U.S. bishops have said they
expect that document to be released soon.
“I think anyone who has engaged in homosexual activity, or has strong
homosexual inclinations, would be best not to apply to a seminary and
not to be accepted into a seminary,” the archbishop told the independent
newspaper. He said that even gays who have been celibate for a decade
or more should not be admitted, the Register reported in its Sept. 4-10
edition.
Archbishop O’Brien, who leads the Archdiocese for the Military Services
in Washington D.C., declined through an assistant to comment to The Associated
Press.
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. The evaluation is set to begin later this month and much of the
focus is expected to be on sexuality, including what seminarians are taught
about maintaining their vow of celibacy.
The Vatican agency overseeing the evaluation — the Congregation
for Catholic Education — is also reportedly drawing up guidelines
for accepting candidates for the priesthood that could address the question
of homosexual seminarians.
A senior Vatican official had suggested previously that the document might
have been shelved, but told the AP last week that he cannot rule out that
a Vatican office might issue such a document. Archbishop O’Brien
told the Register that, “The Holy See should be coming out with
a document about this.”
James Hitchcock, an expert in church history at St. Louis University,
said that while it is impossible to know what Pope Benedict XVI has decided
regarding the document, the archbishop’s comments should not be
dismissed as simply one man’s view.
The issue of gays in the priesthood became a focal point last year when
a study that the U.S. bishops commissioned from the John Jay College of
Criminal Justice found that most of the alleged sexual abuse victims since
1950 were adolescent boys.
The exact number of gay seminarians is not known. Estimates vary dramatically
from one-quarter to more than half of all U.S. priest-candidates.
As part of the seminary evaluation, 117 bishops and seminary staff will
visit 229 campuses over the next year and then present their findings
to the Vatican. The visit to St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park is scheduled
for Oct. 16-21.
Archbishop Edwin O’Brien
