The United States Catholic Church, stung by a sex-abuse scandal, is poised to launch a quiet campaign to clean its seminaries of people suspected of homosexual orientation, sparking protests from the gay community whose leaders have compared the effort to a witch-hunt.
The protests were sparked by the Vatican’s decision to begin at the end of this month what Catholic officials called ”apostolic visitation” of US seminaries and church-controlled colleges to make sure their students abide by celibacy rules and other tenets of church doctrine.
Members of a Vatican-sanctioned commission are expected to descend on as many as 229 church-controlled educational institutions and interview students about their past sex lives and preferences, according to US Catholic officials.
But the effort has drawn sharp criticism from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the leading US organisation representing the gay and lesbian community.
”The real debate around this witch-hunt isn’t between us and the Vatican, it’s between the Vatican and the truth,” HRC president Joe Solmonese said in a sharply worded statement. ”When the church makes gay men a scapegoat for paedophiles, it ignores one problem and creates another. It does nothing to keep children safe or punish criminals.”
The group cited a number of authoritative studies that refute the notion that homosexual orientation among men inevitably leads to paedophilia.
It said the belief that homosexuals are particularly attracted to children is completely unsupported by scientific data and that gay men are no more likely to engage in sex with children than straight men are.
One of the studies quoted by the campaign insists that a child runs a 100 times greater risk of being molested by his or her relatives’ heterosexual partner than by someone who might be identifiable as being homosexual, lesbian or bisexual.
”The church is not following its own teachings,” argued Harry Knox, director of the HRC religion and faith programme. ”Jesus told the truth in love. This is contrary to Christ’s admonition to love our neighbours with the same care we give ourselves.” — Sapa-AFP