The Roman Catholic Church faces a double-headed crisis: sexual abuse corrupting the priesthood and mismanagement by bishops who allowed such abuses to continue for decades.
As Pope John Paul II and leaders of the church continue their unprecedented meeting today at the Vatican, some of the fundamental questions they will address include: Who can be a priest? What training does he need to be the exemplar of holiness his vocation requires? Do homosexuals qualify?
Everyone acknowledges there are gay priests. A national random survey of priests by the Kansas City Star in 2000 found 15 percent considered themselves homosexual, 5 percent bisexual. In the 1970s, certain seminaries were dubbed "pink palaces" for their homosexual subcultures, says the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, editor of the religion journal First Things.
And while Neuhaus says there are many fine gay priests, he says homosexuals molesting teen-aged boys, not pedophiles attacking children, are the lion's share of the men accused in abuse cases.
The church's official position is that homosexual orientation is not sinful, but homosexual activity is. Priests are required to be both celibate (unmarried) and chaste (sexually abstinent), but need not be virgins to apply to seminary.
"I'll say it flat out: No, homosexuals should not be priests," says the Rev. John McCloskey, an outspoken conservative who says homosexuals are less able to stay chaste. "I foresee a time when no one will be ordained who has had an active homosexual lifestyle, and a (heterosexual) who has been promiscuous will have to give deep assurances that he's capable of this commitment."
Even rumors of homosexuality may cause problems. At the Third Continental Congress on Vocations last weekend in Montreal, speakers cited a growing culture of homosexuality in seminaries as one reason parents shy away from sending their sons. The wave of sex abuse suits beginning in the mid-80s has only increased fears.
From 1965 to 2001, the number of U.S. diocesan priests dropped from 35,925 to 30,223, says the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. There are 46,075 priests, including those in religious orders; 16 percent of U.S. parishes are without a priest.
The Vatican already is examining the connection, says John Allen, who covers the Holy See for the weekly National Catholic Reporter.
But when the Vatican began trying to draft ways to determine candidates' sexual orientations, it drew a negative reaction from bishops around the world, and the Congregation for Catholic Education dropped it, Allen says. Heterosexual orientation and virginity are not on the list of six criteria for valid ordination, canon lawyers say.
"Part of what is fueling outrage is secret, or not so secret, homophobia on the part of many Catholics and people in the hierarchy," says Tom Beaudoin, 32, who teaches theology at Boston College. Making gays the problem "does a tremendous disservice to the great number of Catholic priests who are celibate, faithful and Christ-like."
How, Beaudoin wonders, would they divide the men when "there's no simple grid for human desires?"
And who would do the sorting, he asks, when "some of the people who would be asked to enforce homophobic policies are themselves gay? A priest or a bishop has no more reason to be outed than anyone else in everyday life."