SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland
Tuesday 5 March 2013
Gerry Braiden
Local Government Correspondent
THE Catholic Church is guilty of double standards for denouncing homosexuality as a disorder while knowing many of its priests and trainees at its seminaries were gay, a Scots-based Vatican adviser has warned.
John Haldane, a professor of philosophy at St Andrews University and a leading commentator on Scottish Catholic affairs, said the Cardinal Keith O’Brien scandal was a challenge for the church to reform. The process, he added, should include cutting the number of dioceses north of the Border by 50%.
Mr Haldane also suggested a committee of about six lay advisers be formed to see it through the transformation.
Currently five of the eight dioceses are without bishops, numerous parishes are struggling to find priests and finances are also dire in many areas.
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