Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Documents Show Gay Priest Concerns
AP Religion Writer | APRIL 08, 2002 | RACHEL ZOLL

Posted on 04/09/2002 9:11:52 AM PDT by Slyfox

Court documents released Monday in the case of a Massachusetts priest accused of sex abuse provide rare insight into the early efforts of the Archdiocese of Boston to keep gays from entering the priesthood.

In a 1979 letter to the Vatican, the late Cardinal Humberto Medeiros expressed alarm at the burgeoning gay rights movement and disclosed he had spent five years weeding out homosexuals from area seminaries.

``The danger in seminaries, your eminence, is obvious,'' Medeiros wrote to Cardinal Franjo Seper in Rome. ``Where large numbers of homosexuals are present in a seminary, other homosexuals are quickly attracted. Other healthier young men tend to be repelled.''

Medeiros noted that some priests had publicly revealed they were gay and were asserting that ``homosexual acts'' may not be sinful. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that engaging in gay sex is wrong.

The cardinal, who died in 1983, wrote that he had encouraged seminary spiritual directors to ``exercise their influence to remove from the path to the priesthood young men who are homosexuals.'' The cardinal proclaimed the effort a success.

``We have a seminary which has now - within a five-year period - become almost fully transformed into a community of healthy, well-balanced young men,'' Medeiros said. ``Our numbers are much smaller but now we will attract more young men who will be the right kind of candidates.''

The issue of gays in the priesthood remains a pressing concern among Catholics.

Estimates of the number of gays currently among seminarians and the more than 45,000 Catholic clergy in the United States vary dramatically, from 10 percent to 50 percent.

``The atmosphere of seminaries is so gay that the few heterosexuals entering the seminary feel the culture and environment of the seminary is alienating,'' the Rev. Richard McBrien, a theologian at the University of Notre Dame, said in a recent interview.

``It is an extraordinarily convenient occupation for someone who will never marry. It gives respectability to the unmarried state.''

Medeiros' letter was written in response to Vatican questions about the Rev. Paul Shanley, who is accused of repeatedly raping a boy in the 1980s. The Boston Archdiocese knew Shanley had spoken in favor of sex between men and boys at a 1979 meeting that apparently led to the founding of a national group advocating the practice, according to court documents.

Medeiros lamented that some of the men he rejected for the priesthood in Massachusetts had been accepted in seminaries elsewhere. The cardinal said he was working with U.S. bishops to ensure seminaries nationwide were aware of the problem.

Seper congratulated Medeiros for his attention to the issue.

``Your perceptive analysis would seem to indicate the need for specific measures on the part of the American hierarchy, especially those in urban centers similar to your own,'' Seper wrote.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-77 last
Comment #61 Removed by Moderator

Comment #62 Removed by Moderator

Comment #63 Removed by Moderator

To: Slyfox
#40

You're right. We've been complaining and talking about corruption in the American Church for a long time.

Trojan Horse in the City of God Click HERE:

64 posted on 04/10/2002 12:26:24 PM PDT by HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: AlexanderTheGreat
All this denunciation of Herek's study and yet you offer nothing in counterpoint.

Ah, but I have. You've simply chosen to ignore it, rather than confront it.

(1) The human sexual faculty exists for the purpose of procreation.

(2) The pleasureable nature of sexual intercourse exists to encourage humans to use their sexual faculty to procreate.

(3) Therefore, engaging in sexual intercourse solely for the purpose of pleasure is to mistake cause for effect.

(4) Sodomites engage in deviant sexual intercourse purely for pleasure - their acts biologically cannot result in procreation.

(5) Pedophiles engage in deviant sexual intercourse purely for pleasure - their acts biologically cannot result in procreation.

(6) Both groups therefore share an identical goal: self-gratification in the context of sexual activity devoid of procreative potential.

The very fact that deviant ideologues have produced such an organization as NAMBLA is quite telling, actually - as is the fact that this group openly marches with other sodomy-oriented organizations in national pro-sodomy marches and parades.

BTW, you say that Cameron is "thoroughly discredited". That may be so - but I've never seen a shred of empirical evidence to refute his findings, merely personal comments leveled at him by flamboyant talking heads.

Herek is thoroughly discredited as well - but you cite him anyway, so that's not really the issue. You don't mind the citation of discredited persons, as long as they reassure you in your predilection for sodomy.

Nothing I say will be credited by you because nothing I say will reassure you in that predilection.

65 posted on 04/10/2002 1:42:30 PM PDT by wideawake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

Comment #66 Removed by Moderator

To: HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
Looks like a teeth-sinking good read.
67 posted on 04/10/2002 4:56:19 PM PDT by Slyfox
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: AlexanderTheGreat
As I've proven it occurs naturally in the animal kingdom as it does with humans. My only point. Not that we could fly.

You can prove that six ways from Sunday and still you are not understanding what "natural" means in the context of this discussion. Natural does not mean "occurs in nature", it means "that which is inherent to the essence of something."

Sex does exist for more than just procreation--there is a unitive aspect to it as well. But the pleasure is NOT a purpose. As wideawake said, the pleasure is a biological "incentive" IN SERVICE of the act of reproduction and union. Period. Take the sexual pleasure out of reproduction, we still have a world. Take the reproduction out of sexual pleasure and guess what...extinction in a century.

Tell us, if sex exists for the PURPOSE of pleasure, they why the heck didn't God or evolution or whatever you believe in just hard-wire that chemical pleasure into the brain in the first place instead of making us go through all these complications? Hmm?

68 posted on 04/10/2002 6:10:37 PM PDT by Claud
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: AlexanderTheGreat
Also, NAMBLA does not march in Gay Pride Parades. That's a lie.

Take a look see what a lie looks like.

69 posted on 04/10/2002 6:52:48 PM PDT by Claud
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: AlexanderTheGreat
1. That homosexuality is natural. Point made. Whether you it's "moral" or "ethical" is another debate entirely.

Using your analysis, one could argue that anything that has ever occurred in nature is by definition also natural to man. Homosexual sex is only "natural" in a sense that other animals may sodomize each other occasionally for whatever reason. Just like cannibalism and coprophagia, it is certainly NOT a condition that's natural to man.

2. Whether you think it's irrelevant or not is yet another entire debate. I'm just pointing out that jury is still out. Point made.

Good. Then at least we agree that your point is irrelevant...
70 posted on 04/10/2002 8:05:42 PM PDT by Antoninus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
An EXCELLENT book. I read it last summer. Von Hildebrand was a treasure.
71 posted on 04/10/2002 8:06:37 PM PDT by Antoninus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: Antoninus
Great cover design for that Sophia Press edition. I was flipping through The Devastated Vineyard (1973) earlier tonight and you could take passages right out of there and apply them to current problems without any realization they had been written about 30 years ago.
72 posted on 04/10/2002 8:11:18 PM PDT by HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

Comment #73 Removed by Moderator

Comment #74 Removed by Moderator

To: AlexanderTheGreat
But, it is, Blanche, it is.

Your repeating it over and over will still never make it any less false.

I will pray for your conversion. No one who is yet alive is a hopeless cause, no matter how steeped in sin.
75 posted on 04/11/2002 10:27:02 AM PDT by Antoninus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
Great cover design for that Sophia Press edition. I was flipping through The Devastated Vineyard (1973) earlier tonight and you could take passages right out of there and apply them to current problems without any realization they had been written about 30 years ago.

I haven't read that one yet...
76 posted on 04/11/2002 10:29:11 AM PDT by Antoninus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

Comment #77 Removed by Moderator


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-77 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson