Jesuit says psychology needed to identify 'deep-seated' homosexuality

Published: 2007-03-07

ROME (CNS) -- A leading canon law expert said that in applying the Vatican's directive against admission of homosexuals to the priesthood, seminary authorities should make use of psychological sciences to distinguish between "deep-seated" and transitory homosexual tendencies. Jesuit Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda, rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University and an adviser to several important Vatican agencies, said the use of psychology was a complex but necessary means of establishing the true nature of homosexual traits. Psychological evaluations alone can never substitute for the informed decisions of bishops and seminary authorities, but such testing must be taken into serious consideration, Father Ghirlanda said. He made his comments in the March 4 issue of the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica (Catholic Civilization), whose contents are reviewed by the Vatican prior to publication.

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