New guidelines from the Vatican will see men applying to become Catholic Priests in Melbourne tested to screen out any gay candidates. According to the Herald Sun, those who “appear” to be gay cannot be accepted.

The Vatican committee who handed down the suggestion says that even gays who are celibate cannot be accepted because homosexuality is “a type of deviation”.

It’s been confirmed that Carlton’s Corpus Christi Catholic seminary is already following the guidelines, but they wouldn’t go into detail as to how the tests are carried out.

Anthony Venn-Brown, Co-convenor of gay Christian group Freedom 2 b[e], says that a person’s sexual orientation has nothing to do with their calling. “Gay men and lesbians have served the church faithfully for many years under a don’t ask don’t tell policy. The new Vatican witch hunt reflects how outdated some parts of the Christian Church remain. Many gay men are masculine and would easily slip under the skirts of the Vatican tests. What about the lesbians who enter the Sisterhood? The Vatican, like Queen Victoria, thinks that such a thing could not exist.”

Hayley Conway, a spokesperson for the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, told the Herald Sun that the church is moving backwards, and that the message this sends about sexuality is “dangerous and offensive”.

”[It’s really unfortunate… especially for those who are Catholic and out, and there are a lot of them already struggling… If the plan is to root out paedophilia or child molestation, targeting people with homosexual tendencies isn’t the way to go about it.”

In 2005 the Catholic Church carried out a review of American seminaries. Teams appointed by the Vatican were sent to 229 seminaries, where they conducted confidential interviews with every faculty member and seminarian, as well as everyone who had graduated within the last three years – the objective was to get rid of all signs of homosexuality.

A 12 page document with instructions for the teams was leaked to the New York Times. Among the questions posed to the teams were items such as: “Is the seminary free from the influences of New Age and eclectic spirituality?”, “Do the seminarians or faculty members have concerns about the moral life of those living in the institution?” and “Is there evidence of homosexuality in the seminary?” Teams were also instructed to “watch out for signs of particular friendships”.

In late October last year, according to 365gay, the Vatican announced that they were considering psychological testing for prospective priests, with the aim to get rid of candidates “with strong homosexual tendencies”. According to the document released by Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education, early detection of “sometimes pathological defects” would help avoid tragic circumstances. Many saw the reference as drawing a link between paedophilia and homosexuality.

The Vatican said that testing would be required should a candidate display “strong affective dependencies; notable lack of freedom in relations; excessive rigidity of character; lack of loyalty; uncertain sexual identity; deep-seated homosexual tendencies, etc.”

There is no scientific data about the number of gay priests – estimates vary wildly, some say it could be as high as 60%.