I see that the Vatican is going to introduce sexual screening for seminarians. Men who show 'deep-seated homosexual tendencies' will be barred from proceeding to ordination as priests. There have already been predictable criticisms from the gay lobby and elsewhere.The motive for the Church's latest move must partly at least be gesture politics to show the world that it's seriously trying to do something positive about wayward priests.

Personally, I can not see how any gay man in his right mind would want nowadays to become a salaried employee of an organisation which deals so harshly with any dissent from orthodoxy within its ranks. A gay man owes it to his own mental health to express his vocation in ways that are more likely to lead to a flowering of his God-given talents and gifts of personality. And paradoxically, such a screening process should help would-be candidates for the priesthood as much as the barque of Peter itself.

But I must confess I am puzzled about the proposed screening process. How will it operate in practice? Is it really so easy to 'weed out' seminarians who, according to the guidelines published by the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education, show signs of 'grave immaturity', or 'instability of personality, 'strong affective dependencies, lack of freedom in relations; excessive rigidity of character; lack of loyalty; uncertain sexal identity; deep-seated homosexual tendencies, etc." If this be the case, God help us all!

Psychological development just ain't that simple. It's a bit like the driving test. You can be a super-safer driver in your early twenties. But an absolutely menace on the roads by the time you hit fifty. I guess it might be a bit the same with Catholic priests. Perhaps they should be screened every five years or so throughout their ministry?

Certainly the Church should collaborate with psycholgists and explore the negative effects of the highly contentious requirement for compulsory celibacy. Fresh thinking is badly needed here. In the meantime, perhaps the Church could be a little bit less averse to accepting into its bosom people in their humanity, diversity and brokenness, and be more intent on its real business of helping them to grow, however faltingly, towards ever greater holiness of life.