New Guidelines for Entering Priesthood

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Whether voluntary or mandatory, psychological testing is at least as likely to weed out good priests as bad. Psychology is a secular science with a strong anti-religious and pansexualist history, and it is a young science at that. Even 20 years ago it busied itself trying to explain psychologically from childhood emotional trauma conditions which we now know to be neurobiological in origin (e.g. dyslexia, autism…). Thirty years ago secular employers asked for handwritten resumés in order to have them evaluated by a graphologist, and now they do psychological screening – how much have they learned in those 30 years even about finding good office drones, let alone priests?

Here is the description of a candidate who wouldn’t stand a beggar’s chance in Hades:
He would wander around, going nowhere, his mouth gaping open. But he had a bad temper, too, and so, he was not at all popular. He tried to learn the trade of shoemaking, but failed. He asked to become a Franciscan, but they would not accept him. Next, he joined the Capuchins, but eight months later, they sent him away because he could not seem to do anything right. He dropped piles of dishes and kept forgetting to do what he was told. His mother was not at all pleased to have [him] back home again, so she finally got him accepted as a servant at the Franciscan monastery. He was given the monks habit and put to hard work taking care of the horses. About this time, [he] began to change. He grew more humble and gentle, more careful and successful at his work. He also began to do more penance. Now, it was decided that he could become a real member of the Order and start studying for the priesthood. Although he was very good, he still had a hard time with studies. The examiner happened to ask him to explain the only thing he knew well, and so he was made a deacon, and later a priest.
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catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=72
 
A voluntary psychological mumbo jumbo test is worthless. Sounds like a cover operation to me.

The essence of the scandal is the actual covering up of sexual crimes by Catholic priests. Have these priests been removed, yet?
 
I think psychological evaluation could possibly help. But why not make it manditory instead of voluntary? And why the focus on homosexuality instead of pedophilia? There should be a strong focus on weeding out both, I would think, especially the pedophile. Not all pedophiles are homosexual and vice versa.
 
juliasmith said:
I think psychological evaluation could possibly help. But why not make it manditory instead of voluntary? And why the focus on homosexuality instead of pedophilia? There should be a strong focus on weeding out both, I would think, especially the pedophile. Not all pedophiles are homosexual and vice versa.
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Most of the priest abusers were homosexual, and their victims were almost exclusively young, post-pubescent men.

There is really no specific psych test for homosexuality or pedophilia. However, both tend to score high on the narcissism scale.
 
Ridgerunner said:
Most of the priest abusers were homosexual, and their victims were almost exclusively young, post-pubescent men.
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this further proves to me the pathology that is homosexuality… and if it is pathology… it can hardly be said that one is “born that way”… something i have NEVER believed…
There is really no specific psych test for homosexuality or pedophilia. However, both tend to score high on the narcissism scale.
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hmm… didn’t know that… i would think they would also score high on the sociopathology scale…
 
I think it is a good thing definitely. In fact, I think that psychological screening of priests should be mandatory.
 
It seems like a good idea for many reasons. The life of a priest is very demanding and difficult, and unusual. People should definitely be evaluated to see if they are suitable for that vocation on a psychological level. Lots of demanding jobs require psychological evaluations.
 
Holly3278 said:
I think it is a good thing definitely. In fact, I think that psychological screening of priests should be mandatory.
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i somewhat agree… the only problem is… Who makes these psych tests?? Who evaluates them? Doesn’t it sort of depend on the ideology of the tester?? I don’t know… I feel psych tests are subjective… too subjective… Maybe the Church ought to hire a Catholic (orthodox Cahtolic) to make up a similar test… Then i would say OK, no prob…
 
Neil_Anthony said:
It seems like a good idea for many reasons. The life of a priest is very demanding and difficult, and unusual. People should definitely be evaluated to see if they are suitable for that vocation on a psychological level. Lots of demanding jobs require psychological evaluations.
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i think Catholic families should encourage their boys to enter the priesthood… and i feel (witout giving it a lot of thought, have to admit) that all boys should enter the priesthood but not necessarily stay there forever… I mean, for one thing: how can you know you want to do anything, much less preisthood, for the rest of yor life…?? Plus, we need priests… Maybe the Church should just allow virtually any young boy to enter… (unless he’s a criminal, etc…)… and let them stay as long as they want… some will stay, some won’t… I don’t know… just a thought… kinda like the military… most men don’t have a choice… ??? i mean, i think it should be offered to any young man… if it is $ possible… maybe its not… 🤷
 
Unless this is something different, psych exams have been a requirement for a while to go into seminary. I have to take one in December to become a Seminarian for my diocese, as have most all people I have talked to.

Its generally done by a Catholic, preferably priest(who would have to be qualified to be a psychologist) or by a lay psychologist.

As far as I know it is free. I know mine will be(well, free to me). I haven’t heard any one say they had to pay
 
Have they learned nothing!?! Relying on the psychological guidance of ‘experts’ instead of catholic moral theology is how we got bishops making the boneheaded move of reinstating “cured” pedophile priests in the first place. :mad:

When are our leaders going to learn to trust in the spiritual principles of our own faith instead of those of this world?

I’m not against using psychological evaluations inherently. But this time they had better make sure that the people doing the evaluations are faithful catholics FIRST and psychologists second. And the bishop had STILL better be the one making the final call after personal evaluation instead of delegating this most crucial task to the hired help.
 
distracted said:
i think Catholic families should encourage their boys to enter the priesthood… and i feel (witout giving it a lot of thought, have to admit) that all boys should enter the priesthood but not necessarily stay there forever… I mean, for one thing: how can you know you want to do anything, much less preisthood, for the rest of yor life…?? Plus, we need priests… Maybe the Church should just allow virtually any young boy to enter… (unless he’s a criminal, etc…)… and let them stay as long as they want… some will stay, some won’t… I don’t know… just a thought… kinda like the military… most men don’t have a choice… ??? i mean, i think it should be offered to any young man… if it is $ possible… maybe its not… 🤷
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I think we need a few GOOD priests, not a huge number of priests. Perhaps what you’re saying could apply to going to the seminary or being a brother… but I think Priest is a very special calling for a small number of people.
 
Some orders require it. The ones I know of use sound, Catholic psychologists.
 
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