9/16/2005 12:50:00 AM|||The Zen Master|||Apparently (according to this article in the Times) the Vatican is sending review teams to every Catholic seminary in the States to check that none of the priests or seminarians are gay, which by their instructions will mean "anyone who has engaged in homosexual activity or has strong homosexual inclinations," even if they haven't been sexually active for over a decade. I'm just wondering how they plan to root out the sodomites--strip, bend over, and see which priests wind up with mud on their faces? The Vatican's concern, of course, stems from the sexual abuse scandals that swept the nation in 2002, and from a more recent study the results of which understandably enraged many homophobes:

The issue of gay seminarians and priests has been in the spotlight because a study commissioned by the church found last year that about 80 percent of the young people victimized by priests were boys.

Experts in human sexuality have cautioned that homosexuality and attraction to children are different, and that a disproportionate percentage of boys may have been abused because priests were more likely to have access to male targets - like altar boys or junior seminarians - than to girls.

So they're not gay, they're just equal-opportunity pedophiles. Shouldn't the Church look to rid the priesthood of them? I recommend youthful undercover agents posing as altar boys.|||112680303765391977|||How exactly do they plan to do this?