That Brilliant Church

I wanted to vent a little over Bush's once again inept attempt to excuse his behavior (and, I dare say, his very existence), but instead, I'll leave this link and the topic for later consideration, as I have other disturbing news to think about. I read this a couple of weeks ago and thought "surely not," but apparently it's true. The Catholic Church, apparently having either too much or not enough time on its hands, has decided that the simplest way to deal with the sex scandel is simply to keep any homosexual man from becoming a priest. The NYTimes reported today that each of the over 200 seminaries in the US will be reviewed. Two of the questions that seem particularly insulting to me:

"Is the seminary free from the influences of New Age and eclectic spirituality?" 'whether faculty members "watch out for signs of particular friendships".'

Also in the article is a warning:

"Experts in human sexuality have cautioned that homosexuality and attraction to children are different, and that a disproportionate percentage of boys may have been abused because priests were more likely to have access to male targets - like altar boys or junior seminarians - than to girls"

If they manage to keep all gay men out of the priesthood (they will even bar men who have been celibate for more than 10 years), what kind of message will that send out to the rest of the world? The Church should be one of the most loving institutions in the world, and instead it is seeking to make a group of men scapegoats for the real issue - the men (whatever their sexual orientation) that they train who have problems. Those are the men that should be sought out. But to assume that these men must be gay, or that all gay men have the potential to participate in these crimes is a gross over-simplification of the issue - and a horrible misrepresentation of facts.