MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- A senior Roman Catholic Church
leader in the Philippines said Tuesday that psychological tests should be
imposed on seminarians to screen for pedophiles and prevent them from joining
the clergy.
Archbishop Oscar Cruz, former president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of
the Philippines, Asia's biggest Catholic congregation, said the seminary should
be the first line of defense in barring pedophiles from the priesthood.
"I am worried, though, that pedophilia might not be detected early in the
seminary before ordination to the priesthood," Cruz said. "That is
why rigid psychological tests are imperative for seminarians."
Cruz issued the statement in reaction to a report that Irish Bishop Brendan
Comiskey resigned after admitting he had not done enough to stop a pedophile
priest in his diocese.
Comiskey said he tried but failed to control the Rev. Sean Fortune, who
committed suicide in 1999 before his planned trial on 66 criminal charges of
molesting and raping boys over nearly two decades.
"The response to pedophile priests is very clear," he said.
"They should be dismissed from the ranks of the clergy. They must pray for
self-conversion. They must seek psychiatric help."