Vatican proposes tests to screen out homosexuals

CANDIDATES for the Catholic priesthood should undergo psychological tests to screen out heterosexuals unable to control their sexual urges and men with strong homosexual tendencies, the Vatican said.

In a document — the second in three years to deal with the effects of a sexual abuse scandal that was first uncovered in the US in 2002 and then spread throughout the world involved mostly abuse of teenage boys by priests — the Vatican said the early detection of “sometimes pathological” psychological defects in men before they become priests would help avoid tragic consequences.

“The Church has a duty of discerning a vocation and the suitability of candidates for the priestly ministry,” said the document from the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education.