THE growing number of homosexual men training for the Roman Catholic priesthood is creating "divisive cliques" of gay and straight students, the rector of a leading English seminary says.
Fr Kevin Haggerty, rector of St John's seminary in Wonersh, Surrey, says: "It would seem to me that sub-cultures are a danger. They are inappropriate for the priesthood and contrary to the openness required for a priest."
Fr Haggerty raises the issue in a Channel 4 documentary, Queer and Catholic, to be broadcast next Saturday. The presenter, Mark Dowd, a former Dominican friar who is gay, claims that the priesthood is becoming a "gay profession" like hairdressing.
Speaking to The Telegraph yesterday, Fr Haggerty said: "I don't think we can avoid the issue any more. A lot of people's gut reactions to this issue are not rational. They immediately think of the risk of abuse of children. The problem for the Church is one of perception. Homosexuality is not a problem in itself; the important point is the sexual maturity of the priests."
He said the Church had introduced psychological assessments for all candidates in which they were asked about their sexuality. "What we want to find out is whether they are able to make free, moral decisions about their lifestyle."
The programme claims that there are many practising homosexuals in seminaries who conceal their sexuality. It includes interviews with ex-students of the English College in Rome, where the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, was rector in the 1970s.
Chris Higgins and Dr Dennis Caulfield, who were seminarians there between 1996 and 1999, claim that students were reprimanded for calling each other by girls' names. Mr Higgins, now a probation officer, was ordained a priest despite his relationship with Dr Caulfield, who had left the seminary to become a doctor.
Mr Dowd, 41, was a friar at Blackfriars in Oxford from 1981 to 1983 when Fr Timothy Radcliffe, now Master of the Dominicans, was prior. He left after falling in love with an ex-friar who visited the priory for supper. Dowd says: "It was love at first sight across the refectory table."
The Catholic Media Office questioned whether the programme was helpful, adding: "It is an issue which seminary rectors are talking about."