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Reports that the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne is ‘testing’ would-be priests to ensure they are not gay have been denied by the church. When asked by MCV if they test prospective priests for homosexuality, the Melbourne seminary’s rector stated: “No, we do not.” Last week the Herald-Sun reported that ‘The Melbourne Catholic Church has embraced a Vatican recommendation to test potential priests for sexual orientation’. The article also stated that Archdiocese of Melbourne spokesperson James O’Farrell had confirmed Carlton’s Corpus Christi Catholic seminary was adhering to guidelines set down by the Vatican. One of the recommendations is to test prospective priests for homosexuality. The seminary has consequently denied that they carry out such tests. O’Farrell told MCV that he did confirm that psychological testing was done, but that he never said tests for homosexuality were included. “My comments were that we are applying broad psychological tests,” O’Farrell said. “I never mentioned homosexuality specifically. The rest of the article was the work of the journalist.” O’Farrell said the psychological tests were used to prepare men for priesthood. In November last year the Vatican approved testing to screen out priests with homosexual tendencies. The Vatican went so far as to ban celibate gay men, due to homosexuality being “a type of deviation”. It has not been explained how the testing is carried out.
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