Monday, August 22, 2005
SEMINARIES TO BE EVALUATED
Three years after the clergy sex abuse crisis rocked the Roman Catholic church, a Vatican-directed evaluation of all U.S. seminaries is scheduled to begin late next month.
Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, the U.S. coordinator for the review, said 117 bishops and seminary staff will visit more than 220 campuses, working in teams of three for smaller programs or four for the larger ones, Catholic News Service reported Monday.
The visits are one result of the abuse crisis that hit the American church with full force in 2002. The study will give special attention to schools' preparation for the celibate life and fidelity to church teachings on morality.
Another brewing issue that could be involved is whether seminaries should enroll priestly candidates who are homosexual but willing to abide by the celibacy rule.
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Since it has been announced that they are coming, what will be done to eliminate the problem the last evaluation did not overcome, namely the seminary administrators were ready for them and put on a show that it was assumed the evaluators would view favorably, which effectively made the evaluations a waste of time and money? Can we count on this team of evaluators actually seeing what is really there?
