Guest Opinion: Vatican's New Guidelines for Seminarians a Good Start

Psychological testing has been used as far back as the 1960s in some seminaries. The new guidelines are meant to help church leaders "weed out candidates with psychopathic disturbances," as well as "confused and not yet well-defined" sexual identities.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Inside Catholic) - Today the Vatican issued new guidelines for the screening of seminarians. They are in response to the call for more strident criteria in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse scandal.

Psychological testing has been used as far back as the 1960s in some seminaries. The new guidelines are meant to help church leaders "weed out candidates with psychopathic disturbances," as well as "confused and not yet well-defined" sexual identities.

Pre-screening is necessary, but not enough for a healthy priesthood. Parish priesthood is one of the most difficult and lonely lives on the planet -- especially in some areas. (Full disclosure: One of my brothers is a parish priest.)

I'd like to see bishops consider restructuring things in their dioceses to foster greater fraternity among priests and lay leaders. Priests need relationships as much as anyone, and they need consistent familial-like community to provide support and feedback, hold them accountable, and call them to holiness.

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