Just as the American bishops consider a policy of excluding gays from priestly formation comes Exsules Filii Evae , a novel that sounds the inner life of a seminarian in the contentious decade of the 1980s, when the official attitude towards gays in the Catholic Church is about to turn several degrees chillier with the publication of the now-famous Ratzinger Letter. Why does a gay man think of entering the priesthood in a Church like this, anyway? After Ratzinger, can a gay seminarian hold his head up and persevere? Just what does he lose by leaving?
Just as the American bishops consider a policy of excluding gays from priestly formation comes Exsules Filii Evae , a novel that sounds the inner life of a seminarian in the contentious decade of the 1980s, when the official attitude towards gays in the Catholic Church is about to turn several degrees chillier with the publication of the now-famous Ratzinger Letter. Why does a gay man think of entering the priesthood in a Church like this, anyway? After Ratzinger, can a gay seminarian hold his head up and persevere? Just what does he lose by leaving?