The NY Times has an article on how the U.S. Catholic Church is "screening" seminarians (i.e., men who want to become priests) for "The Gay" and the role that psychological testing and evaluation plays. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/31/nyregion/31gay.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all
Quoting from the article: |Still, since 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, the director of the secretariat of clergy, |consecrated life and vocations of the United States Conference of |Catholic Bishops. “It’s more like one of those things where it’s hard to |define, but ‘I know it when I see it.’ ” "I know it when I see it"? Perhaps we can give the following exercise to students: "If a person says 'I know it when I see it', what potential cognitive biases, such as the availability heuristic, can operate to lead to a faulty perception and erroneous decision-making?" Continuing the quote: |Many church officials have been reluctant to discuss the screening |process, and its details differ from diocese to diocese. In the densely |populated Diocese of Brooklyn, officials are confident of their results |in one respect. | |“We have no gay men in our seminary at this time,” said Dr. Robert |Palumbo, a psychologist who has screened seminary candidates at the |diocese’s Cathedral Seminary Residence in Douglaston, Queens, for |10 years. “I’m pretty sure of it.” Whether that reflects rigorous vetting |or the reluctance of gay men to apply, he could not say. “I’m just reporting |what is,” he said. I find the above quote somewhat amazing because it reflects the assumption that being gay is a categorical condition, that is, one either has "The Gay" or doesn't, instead of conceptualizing homosexuality as a range of behaviors and relationships that ranges from exclusively homosexual to exclusively heterosexual. One wonders how Palumbo classifies phenomena like "gay for the stay" (i.e., homosexual activity that occurs when heterosexual activity is not possible, such as in prison, the military, etc.) and "gay for pay" (i.e., people who engage in homosexual activity for economic reasons but are heterosexual in their personal relationships). Is there a "one drop" position for homosexuality? If a person imagines a homosexual engagement, does that person have "The Gay"? How a psychologist like Palumbo deals with such issues? Continuing to quote: |Concern over gay men in the priesthood has simmered in the church |for centuries, and has been heightened in recent years by claims from |some Catholic scholars that 25 percent to 50 percent of priests in the |United States are gay. The church has never conducted its own survey, |but other experts have estimated the number to be far smaller. | |The sexual abuse scandal has prompted some conservative bishops to |lay blame for the crisis on a “homosexual subculture” in the priesthood. |While no one has proposed expelling gay priests, the crisis has pitted |those traditionalists against other Catholics who attribute the problem |to priests, gay and straight, with dysfunctional personalities. If the Catholic Church is really interested in stemming sexual abuse, especially of children, shouldn't they be screening for pedophilia instead of homosexuality? And while we're at it, perhaps they should screen for psychopathy, authoritarianism, social dominance, and all those other "normal" traits/attitudes that can lead to so much difficulty. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=2847 or send a blank email to leave-2847-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
