Vatican plan to block gay priests
The media has shamelessly ignored that most of the Catholic priests accused of sexual misconduct with young boys are homosexual or have homosexual tendencies. Few priests have accosted women or girls. (PLEASE don't call me a gay-basher: I'm addressing a media-bias issue here, not a lifestyle!)
Elite media report the so-called the church's pedophilia problem as though it involves numerous priests, but this is not true. Approximately 400 allegations were made against priests nationwide in recent years and many of those making such claims know that the cases are so old (up to 50 years ago) that accusers face little chance of prosecution for filing false charges; some will likely even receive out-of-court settlements.
Consider, too, that even if half of the claims are true, then 200 cases represent less 0.5 percent of all U.S. priests, whose numbers total about 45,000.
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Vatican plan to block gay priests
Jamie Doward, religious affairs correspondent
Sunday August 28, 2005
The Observer
The new Pope faces his first controversy over the direction of the Catholic church after it was revealed that the Vatican has drawn up a religious instruction preventing gay men from being priests.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1558063,00.html
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In its January 29, 30, and 31 issues, The Kansas City Star reported on a major study it conducted on homosexuality and HIV/AIDS cases in the Catholic priesthood (the series ran in Knight Ridder papers nationwide). The Star’s verdict, based on death certificates of priests and other sources, is: “it appears that priests are dying of AIDS at a rate at least four times that of the general U.S. population….” According to The Star, this is a conservative estimate, for other statistics and experts put the rate at seven, eight, and even eleven times that of the general population.
The Star also sent a confidential survey to 3,000 priests, of whom 801 responded. Of the 801, about one in 114 said “they either have HIV or AIDS or might have but haven’t been tested,” which is close to three or four times that of the general population.
http://www.newoxfordreview.org/note.jsp?did=0400-notes-degenerate
