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But the church continues to make it hard for gay priests to accept and integrate their sexual desires into their identities. One of the few concrete decisions the U.S. Cardinals made following their meeting in Rome with the Pope last month was to dispatch a team, called an apostolic visitation, to inspect all the nation's 220 seminaries and other preparatory institutions. The purpose is to determine whether the schools have been upholding orthodox moral doctrine in their applications process and in their classrooms. Some priests read that as code for a witch hunt. Details about the visitation won't be worked out until the June 13-15 meeting of U.S. bishops in Dallas, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The decision could have a dramatic effect on seminaries like St. Patrick's in Menlo Park, Calif. Its director, the Rev. Gerald Coleman, agrees with Silva that psychosexual education and open dialogue are among the best ways to prevent inappropriate sexual behavior, not to mention depression, addiction and other dysfunction. He requires his 103 seminarians to reckon with their sexuality, be it gay or straight, throughout their five years there. They are expected to discuss their sexual attitudes and development, among other things, once a month with their advisers and must take three courses on sexuality: a class on overall human sexuality, another on intimacy and celibacy, and one on sexual abuse, which includes guest lectures by victims and perpetrators. But even in that spirit of enlightened openness, the dialogue is fraught and unsteady.
At a recent meeting of Coleman's elective class, Homosexuality and the Church, words and phrases like penis, Freud, male rectum and Will & Grace are bandied about without embarrassment. Coleman covers the scriptural teachings on homosexuality and the psychological impact of homophobia. At one point he says that gay teenagers suffer from a lack of role models. In the next moment, he says gay priests and teachers should not come out of the closet, lest they confuse children. It is an awkward balancing act, and a seminarian calls Coleman on the contradiction. "How are young people supposed to work out their sexuality if they don't have role models?" asks Chris Sellars, 27, who is scheduled to be ordained next January. Coleman listens intently but stands by his imperfect position. "Our fundamental role is to proclaim the Gospel," he says. The other seven students around the table look slightly confused, but Coleman encourages them to accept ambiguity and just be aware of different perspectives.
The recent statements of the Cardinals linking homosexuality to pedophilia make his job even harder, Coleman says. "I think they've confused the issues immeasurably." Although St. Patrick's is among the more liberal, most seminaries now have psychological screening exams and some form of psychosexual training. But some more conservative members of the church advocate a different approach. St. Charles Borromeo Seminary outside Philadelphia asks applicants about their orientation and denies entry to gay men, regardless of their willingness to be celibate, archdiocesan officials told the Philadelphia Inquirer in April. (St. Charles officials declined to speak to TIME.)