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To identify gays. Positive result to sound alarm bell, director says
DEBBIE PARKES
The Gazette
Saturday, January 10, 2004
The Grand Séminaire de Montréal is adding a new requirement for men who want to study to become priests - an HIV test.
Not that the Catholic Church feels gay sex is the only way a person can get the AIDS virus. Still, a positive test result will sound an alarm bell, said the seminary's rector, Rev. Marcel Demers.
Should an applicant be found to be HIV-positive, he'll be asked how he contracted the virus. If it were through a gay relationship, "we will try to see what really is the person's calling," Demers said.
"It's not that Jesus wanted homophobia," Demers said in an interview this week. "But we also realize that this profile doesn't lend itself as well to what we require of a priest."
He said the decision to require the test was made by Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, the archbishop of Montreal.
Turcotte wasn't available for comment yesterday.
The new policy takes effect for those applying to enter the seminary this fall.
Demers said gays aren't automatically refused admittance to the institution.
Still, he acknowledged their chances of being accepted are slim.
The seminary is where candidates to enter the priesthood generally live and study.
There are 19 men currently studying at the Grand Séminaire, including three who started there last fall.
Action Séro-Zéro, an HIV support and prevention organization, said the seminary's demand for such a test could contravene the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Demers said the church believes homosexuals have a harder time than heterosexuals to remain chaste - a major reason for the test.
That reasoning rankles Robert Rousseau, executive director of Action Séro-Zéro.
"They'd do well to first update their knowledge of sexual orientation," said Rousseau, who is gay.
Men in general - whether gay or straight - are socialized to believe that having frequent sexual relations is something to be proud of, Rousseau said.
This has nothing to do with sexual orientation, he contended. Difficulty in remaining celibate is not a matter of sexual orientation but of being a male, period, he said.
Spokesperson Ginette L'Heureux said the Quebec Human Rights Commission can't say whether the seminary's policy violates the rights charter without examining the question in detail.
She added it's possible the church would be exempt from the charter under Section 20, which makes some exceptions for charitable and religious organizations.
In any case, the Montreal seminary isn't the first to require an HIV test. Edmonton's St. Joseph Seminary has required the test for at least four years, said that institution's rector, Louis-Paul Gauvreau.
The Vancouver archdiocese requires the test for seminary applicants whom it sponsors, said Matthew Gerlich, vice-rector of the Seminary of Christ the King in Mission, B.C.
In the United States, seminaries started testing for HIV more than a decade ago. Bill Ryan, a spokesperson for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he's virtually certain all U.S. dioceses require the test.
While church officials also defend the test as part of a thorough medical exam, the requirement occurs against a backdrop of a church struggling to come to terms with homosexuality.
Canada's largest seminary, St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto, doesn't require an HIV test. However, the question of sexual orientation comes up in the selection process, said Rev. Thomas Lynch, the dean.
"The church has never said that a homosexual orientation is (reason) to hold back a person from office in the church," so long as celibacy is maintained, he added.
"But let's be realistic. You can't change your sexual habits on a dime," he said.
If a person is gay and has been sexually active with other men, and then finds himself living in a seminary among 20, 40 or 100 other men, "the odds are pretty high he's going to be attracted to somebody," Lynch said.
Check this site:
http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/story.asp?id=C29767FF-ECE6-4D0E-8233-09709C51A74F
What do you think?
DEBBIE PARKES
The Gazette
Saturday, January 10, 2004
The Grand Séminaire de Montréal is adding a new requirement for men who want to study to become priests - an HIV test.
Not that the Catholic Church feels gay sex is the only way a person can get the AIDS virus. Still, a positive test result will sound an alarm bell, said the seminary's rector, Rev. Marcel Demers.
Should an applicant be found to be HIV-positive, he'll be asked how he contracted the virus. If it were through a gay relationship, "we will try to see what really is the person's calling," Demers said.
"It's not that Jesus wanted homophobia," Demers said in an interview this week. "But we also realize that this profile doesn't lend itself as well to what we require of a priest."
He said the decision to require the test was made by Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, the archbishop of Montreal.
Turcotte wasn't available for comment yesterday.
The new policy takes effect for those applying to enter the seminary this fall.
Demers said gays aren't automatically refused admittance to the institution.
Still, he acknowledged their chances of being accepted are slim.
The seminary is where candidates to enter the priesthood generally live and study.
There are 19 men currently studying at the Grand Séminaire, including three who started there last fall.
Action Séro-Zéro, an HIV support and prevention organization, said the seminary's demand for such a test could contravene the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Demers said the church believes homosexuals have a harder time than heterosexuals to remain chaste - a major reason for the test.
That reasoning rankles Robert Rousseau, executive director of Action Séro-Zéro.
"They'd do well to first update their knowledge of sexual orientation," said Rousseau, who is gay.
Men in general - whether gay or straight - are socialized to believe that having frequent sexual relations is something to be proud of, Rousseau said.
This has nothing to do with sexual orientation, he contended. Difficulty in remaining celibate is not a matter of sexual orientation but of being a male, period, he said.
Spokesperson Ginette L'Heureux said the Quebec Human Rights Commission can't say whether the seminary's policy violates the rights charter without examining the question in detail.
She added it's possible the church would be exempt from the charter under Section 20, which makes some exceptions for charitable and religious organizations.
In any case, the Montreal seminary isn't the first to require an HIV test. Edmonton's St. Joseph Seminary has required the test for at least four years, said that institution's rector, Louis-Paul Gauvreau.
The Vancouver archdiocese requires the test for seminary applicants whom it sponsors, said Matthew Gerlich, vice-rector of the Seminary of Christ the King in Mission, B.C.
In the United States, seminaries started testing for HIV more than a decade ago. Bill Ryan, a spokesperson for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he's virtually certain all U.S. dioceses require the test.
While church officials also defend the test as part of a thorough medical exam, the requirement occurs against a backdrop of a church struggling to come to terms with homosexuality.
Canada's largest seminary, St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto, doesn't require an HIV test. However, the question of sexual orientation comes up in the selection process, said Rev. Thomas Lynch, the dean.
"The church has never said that a homosexual orientation is (reason) to hold back a person from office in the church," so long as celibacy is maintained, he added.
"But let's be realistic. You can't change your sexual habits on a dime," he said.
If a person is gay and has been sexually active with other men, and then finds himself living in a seminary among 20, 40 or 100 other men, "the odds are pretty high he's going to be attracted to somebody," Lynch said.
Check this site:
http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/story.asp?id=C29767FF-ECE6-4D0E-8233-09709C51A74F
What do you think?
