Calling John Proctor...

My Church is basically falling apart, and they decide to fixate on ways to decrease vocations and alientate the faithful? "Let's blame it on the gays so we can ignore the idiocy of celibacy and women in the priesthood." Can anyone say witchhunt?! I don't have the strength to rant on this one. Stories from the NYTimes will have to do...

Vatican to Check U.S. Seminaries On Gay Presence
September 15, 2005, Thursday
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Investigators appointed by the Vatican have been instructed to review each of the 229 Roman Catholic seminaries in the United States for ''evidence of homosexuality'' and for faculty members who dissent from church teaching, according to a document prepared to guide the process...

...A 12-page document with instructions for the review is now being distributed to seminarians and faculty members. It asks whether the doctrine on the priesthood presented by the seminary is ''solidly based on the church's Magisterium,'' or teaching, and whether teachers and seminarians ''accept this teaching.'' Among the other questions are these:

• ''Is there a clear process for removing from the seminary faculty members who dissent from the authoritative teaching of the church or whose conduct does not provide good example to future priests?''
• ''Is the seminary free from the influences of New Age and eclectic spirituality?''
• ''Do the seminarians or faculty members have concerns about the moral life of those living in the institution? (This question must be answered).''
• ''Is there evidence of homosexuality in the seminary? (This question must be answered).''

Admirers of Fallen 9/11 Hero Disdain the Vatican's Likely Plan to Bar Gays as Priests
By ANDY NEWMAN
Published: September 25, 2005

The Rev. Mychal F. Judge, the Fire Department chaplain who died in the rubble of 9/11, was, and still is, one of the most widely loved Roman Catholic priests in New York City's recent history.

For 40 years, Father Judge tirelessly ministered to firefighters, their grieving widows, AIDS patients, homeless people, Flight 800 victims' families and countless others. At his funeral, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani called him a saint, a sentiment that admirers have followed up by campaigning for his canonization. A simple prayer that Father Judge wrote has been circulated around the world and attached to thousands of donations to the needy. Pope John Paul II accepted the gift of his helmet.

Father Judge was also, according to many of his friends of all sexual orientations, a homosexual. A celibate homosexual, he told friends, but a homosexual nonetheless. And reports last week that the Vatican is likely to try to bar gay men, even celibate ones, from the priesthood stirred anger among those who revere his memory.

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