The sexual abuse scandal has made the Catholic Church super-cautious about who it hires. It now screens prospective seminarians with a series of cunning questions:
“When was the last time you had sex?” all candidates for the seminary are asked. (The preferred answer: not for three years or more.)
“What kind of sexual experiences have you had?” is another common question. “Do you like pornography?”
Depending on the replies, and the results of standardized psychological tests, the interview may proceed into deeper waters: “Do you like children?” and “Do you like children more than you like people your own age?”
Presumably, the answer "only for sexual purposes" earns you a black mark.
The scandal has also pushed the church further into homophobia:
(S)ince the abuse crisis erupted in 2002, curtailing the entry of gay men into the priesthood has become one the church’s highest priorities. And that task has fallen to seminary directors and a cadre of psychologists who say that culling candidates has become an arduous process of testing, interviewing and making decisions — based on social science, church dogma and gut instinct.
“The best way I can put it, it’s not black and white,” said the
adviser, the Rev. David Toups... “It’s more like one of those things where it’s hard to define, but ‘I know it when I see it.’ ”
Also, of course, a famous definition of obscenity.
Full NYT story here.
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