Montreal, Canada, Jan 14, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Candidates for the priesthood would not be rejected based on their sexual orientation or the result of a positive HIV test, said Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte at a packed pressed conference Jan. 12 at the archdiocesan center.
The archbishop of Montreal called the press conference to clarify a report, published two days earlier in the local press, that the Grand Seminary of Montreal will screen seminary applicants for HIV, beginning this fall.
In the report, seminary rector Fr. Marcel Demers suggested that the test helped to assess whether an applicant would be able to live a chaste, celibate life, as required of seminarians and priests.
However, at the press conference Cardinal Turcotte underlined that the medical exam is conducted to assure an applicant’s state of health.