After a series of sex-scandals involving priests, Pope Benedict XVI has authorized a new strategy which will aim to root out applicants with devious sexual urges. The guidance states the tests should also aim to vet for those with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies”.

The tests have been underlined as voluntary, but will be requested by rectors in appropriate cases. The guide stipulated that applicants would be refused entry to the priesthood if it is “evident the candidate has difficulty living in celibacy: That is, if celibacy for him is lived as a burden so heavy that it compromises his affective and relational equilibrium.”

The Vatican affirms that a priest must have a “positive and stable sense of one's masculine identity,” and that the test will aim to identify those who are ‘immature’.

The document reads: “Such areas of immaturity would include strong affective dependencies; notable lack of freedom in relations; excessive rigidity of character; lack of loyalty; uncertain sexual identity; deep-seated homosexual tendencies, etc. If this should be the case, the path of formation will have to be interrupted.”

Psychological tests have been used in some seminaries for fifty years. A 2005 Vatican document allowed men to become priests if they had suppressed homosexual urges for three years. However, after spending vast sums on law suits in recent years, the Roman Catholic Church has seen the need for less tolerant measures.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a US-based group of victims of sexual abuse, released a statement saying the new measures would fail to deal with the problem of sex abuse in the Church: “Catholic officials continue to fixate on the offenders and ignore the larger problem: The Church's virtually unchanged culture of secrecy and unchecked power in the hierarchy.

“These broader factors are deeply rooted in the Church and contribute heavily to extensive and ongoing clergy sex abuse and cover up.”

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