The Okie here and I have a rant. Oh do I have a rant!

The Catholic Church is beginning an investigation of all it's priests following the sex scandals of the past few years. As a former student at a Catholic school, I do believe it is entirely necessary. There were a number of priests at my school who could be looked at for inappropriate conduct. For example, one priest was notorious for standing at the bottom of middle school stairs and looking up the girls' skirts.

But the Vatican is not searching for evidence of sexual misconduct. It's looking for evidence of homosexuality. Apparently since it was mostly boys who were assaulted, the scandals have nothing to do pedophilia, oh no. Not at all. It's because these priests were obviously gay. Thus begins the Queer Inquisition. Why look for the perverts when you can look for the queers? They're the same thing, right? This is proof of how dated the Catholic Church's perspectives on sexuality are. They still believe we're deviants, we're sinners and now they believe we're criminals.

It's sad that even as the Catholic Church begins to reexamine itself in the wake of these horrific abuses it still refuses to blame itself. It's not the Catholic Church's fault. It's the gays. The gays did it.

Below is the New York Times article about the Vatican's inquisition. I'm happy to say the article came about because the Vatican's order was leaked by a priest with a conscience. At least there's one good robed man out there who believes that being Catholic is more than being straight.

Vatican investigation seeks 'evidence of homosexuality'
The review of U.S. institutions follows a series of sex abuse cases
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
New York Times

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...

The Okie here and I have a rant. Oh do I have a rant!

The Catholic Church is beginning an investigation of all it's priests following the sex scandals of the past few years. As a former student at a Catholic school, I do believe it is entirely necessary. There were a number of priests at my school who could be looked at for inappropriate conduct. For example, one priest was notorious for standing at the bottom of middle school stairs and looking up the girls' skirts.

But the Vatican is not searching for evidence of sexual misconduct. It's looking for evidence of homosexuality. Apparently since it was mostly boys who were assaulted, the scandals have nothing to do pedophilia, oh no. Not at all. It's because these priests were obviously gay. Thus begins the Queer Inquisition. Why look for the perverts when you can look for the queers? They're the same thing, right? This is proof of how dated the Catholic Church's perspectives on sexuality are. They still believe we're deviants, we're sinners and now they believe we're criminals.

It's sad that even as the Catholic Church begins to reexamine itself in the wake of these horrific abuses it still refuses to blame itself. It's not the Catholic Church's fault. It's the gays. The gays did it.

Below is the New York Times article about the Vatican's inquisition. I'm happy to say the article came about because the Vatican's order was leaked by a priest with a conscience. At least there's one good robed man out there who believes that being Catholic is more than being straight.

Vatican investigation seeks 'evidence of homosexuality'
The review of U.S. institutions follows a series of sex abuse cases
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
New York Times

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.

The Vatican document, given to the New York Times last week by a priest who was granted anonymity because he feared retribution, surfaces as Catholics await a Vatican ruling on whether homosexuals should be barred from the priesthood.

In a possible indication of the ruling's contents, the American archbishop who is supervising the seminary review said earlier this month that "anyone who has engaged in homosexual activity, or has strong homosexual inclinations," should not be admitted to a seminary.

Edwin O'Brien, archbishop for the U.S. military, told the National Catholic Register that the restriction should apply even to those who had not been sexually active for a decade or more.

American seminaries are under Vatican review as a result of the sexual abuse scandal that swept the priesthood in 2002. Church officials in the United States and Rome agreed that they wanted to take a closer look at how seminary candidates were screened for admission and whether they were being prepared for lives of chastity and celibacy.

Gay seminarians and priests have come under particular scrutiny because a study commissioned by the church found last year that about 80 percent of the young people victimized by priests were boys.

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.

Anticipation of such a move rose this year with the election of Pope Benedict XVI, who has spoken of the need to "purify" the church.

It is unknown how many Catholic priests are gay. Estimates range from as low as 10 percent to as high as 60.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says people with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies must live in chastity because "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."

The Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a sociologist who resigned in May as editor of the Jesuit magazine America under pressure from the Vatican, said that with the shortage of priests, the church can hardly afford to dismiss gay seminarians.

"You could have somebody who's been in the seminary for five or six years and is planning to be ordained and the rector knows they're a homosexual," said Reese, now a visiting scholar at Santa Clara University in California. "What are they going to do, throw them out?

"It's much healthier if a seminarian can talk about their sexuality with a spiritual director, but this kind of policy is going to force it all underground."

The seminary review, called an "apostolic visitation," will send teams appointed by the Vatican to the 229 seminaries, which have more than 4,500 students.

At each seminary, the visitors are to conduct confidential interviews with every faculty member and seminarian, as well as everyone who graduated in the past three years.