The Bunny wrote: Read today that a soon to be promulgated directive will ban homosexual priests and seminarians.
Scooped ya on that story, Bunny
Gotta figure the "development" - nothing new, really, just a reaffirmation, and directed primarilly at the North American and to a lesser extent Estern European Catholic communities, a reminder, of sorts - simply signals The Church has no intention of relaxing her stand on the issue. Of course, while there will be consternation and backlash among those most directly affected, The Church has had her say, and isn't known to be particularly given to hastily reconsidering such things.
Oh, and as to "how will they tell?" - the screening, qualification, induction, and ongoing evaluation of candidates for the priesthood is lengthy, rigorous, painstaking, and overwhelmingly thorough. In the vast majority of cases, "they" certainly will be able "to tell", something which in and of itself will serve to discourage thoughts of subverting the system, and while some inevitably will "slip through", given the unambiguous nature of the announcement, sanctions may be expected to be certain, swift, and draconian. Note as well the directive concerns itself only with candicacy for the priesthood; it does not preclude those of alternate sexual inclination from participating in The Church, only from achieving positions of influence and leadership within The Church.
Another observation; following the Post WWII global psychosocial pendulum swing toward permissiveness and liberalism, the momentum has reversed, politically and morally. Things may be expected, over the next couple generations, to track more to The Right overall. That too will change, it always does, but its a cycle of generations, and the change is as inevitable as it was then, is now, and forever shall be. As The Church enters her third millenium, she is not the engine of change, but a mirror of constancy; The World has attitude swings, The Church does not.
