May 2002

Cardinals blame crisis on gay priests

When U.S. cardinals issued a joint statement Apr. 25 after their meetings with the pope and Vatican officials, the first two recommendations were for a crackdown on unspecified forms of dissent and an investigation of seminaries and their admission requirements. Between the lines, they seemed to be blaming gay seminarians and priests for the clergy sexual abuse crisis. That fear was further borne out Apr. 26 when Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, hosting his fellow cardinals in Philadelphia, told the press his archdiocese screens seminary applicants for homosexuality because "we feel a person who is homosexual-oriented is not a suitable candidate for the priesthood even if he had never committed any homosexual act." He added that heterosexual priests by their celibacy are giving up a very good thing, family and children, while homosexual priests "are giving up what the church considers an aberration, a moral evil." The archconservative Catholics United for the Faith applauded the cardinals for recognizing that "homosexuality is a large part of the problem." But a CTA press release insisted that good priests can be gay or straight, male or female, as long as they are sexually mature. CTA attached quotes from the USCCB's own clergy sex abuse consultants, psychologist Fr. Stephen Rossetti and psychiatrist Fred S. Berlin, to the effect that homosexuality is not the problem.

Dignity/USA Executive Director Marianne Duddy called Bevilacqua's remarks "irresponsible and insulting to both gay and straight priests." Dignity/USA is the nation's largest and oldest organization of GLBT Catholics. Duddy told CTA she had fielded an unprecedented 96 media calls and interviews in one week because of the Cardinals' scapegoating of gays.