Pope Francis is alleged to have told Italian bishops: "If you have even the slightest doubt, it's better not to let them enter because these acts or deep-seated tendencies can lead to scandals and can compromise the life of the seminary, as well as the man himself and his future priesthood."

However, there has been no Vatican confirmation of what Francis told the bishops in a closed-door session last week.

Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, who is the president of the Italian Bishops' Conference, answered a journalist's question in a way that appeared to confirm that Francis had discussed homosexuality when addressing Italy's crisis of priestly vocations.

If Francis's alleged views have been correctly quoted, they match up with a 2005 Vatican document about gay men's vocations.

The document is called "Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders."

It was issued by the Congregation for Catholic Education.

In 2016, the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy released another document called The Gift of the Priestly Vocation.

It says "If a candidate practices homosexuality or presents deep-seated homosexual tendencies, his spiritual director, as well as his confessor, have the duty to dissuade him in conscience from proceeding towards ordination."

Neither of the documents was signed by the pontiffs of the day - Pope emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

Though Francis has not addressed the topic publicly, he alluded to problems of homosexuality in seminary formation during a recent meeting with Chilean bishops.

In a letter written to the bishops which was leaked to Chilean media, Francis corrected Chilean prelates for systematically covering up clerical abuse.

He said the abuses were not limited to just one person or group, but were the result of a fractured seminary process.

In the case of many abusers in Chile, Francis noted how problems had been detected while they were in the seminary or the novitiate.

Rather than expelling these individuals, some bishops or superiors "sent priests suspected of active homosexuality to these educational institutions."

Source

• Crux Now
• Eurasia Review
• Image: American National Catholic Church

Directing what he calls "the strong right arm" of the Church, he is a champion for many conservative Catholics for many of the same reasons the Catholic left considers him deeply problematic.

One major, longstanding reason for such polarization is his prioritization of abortion as a uniquely important political issue.

At the Knights' international convention last week he suggested no other issue could outweigh abortion in our political considerations, given that it is "killing on a massive scale."

Anderson also appeared to claim that Catholics may not vote for a pro-choice politician.

"It is time to end the entanglement of Catholic people with abortion killing," he said.

"It is time to stop creating excuses for voting for pro-abortion politicians."

His statements have drawn the ire of left-leaning Catholics such as Anthony Annett atDotCommonweal.

Annett asks "Why is abortion such a unique category?" and expertly demonstrates problems with appeals to concepts like non-negotiability and intrinsic evil.

But Anderson make his reasoning quite clear as to why he thinks abortion deserves unique consideration: millions and millions and millions of horrific killings. One million every year.

On this score, Anderson is surely correct.

No other issue comes close to the importance of abortion because no other issue is dealing with the actual, real-life slaughter of the most vulnerable on this scale.

These are children who, Pope Francis reminds us, have the face of Christ as the paradigmatic example of the least among us.

Though Anderson didn't mention it, another reason abortion deserves unique standing is because of how many millions of women are explicitly and structurally coerced into it.

Abortion on demand was created by men to serve the interests of men.

Feminists for Life reminds us that another important evil of abortion is that it violently exploits women as well.

Speaking frankly, the Catholic left has been grossly negligent when it comes to taking the gravity of massive abortion violence seriously.

Other proportionate reasons

It's one thing to acknowledge the complexity of the issues and reject GOP solutions to the problem. But it is quite another to simply sit by in silence as the Democratic party is taken over by what I call "abortion-is-awesome" extremism.

Though Anderson is absolutely correct about the unique status of abortion, he is absolutely incorrect if he is claiming Catholics have a moral obligation to avoid voting for a pro-choice candidate.

Back in February I wrote a piece arguing that Catholics may vote for Bernie Sanders, and much of that argument applies to Hillary Clinton as well.

This is not "making excuses," but simply following the reasoning of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who in his previous role as head of the CDF, said:

"When a Catholic does not share a candidate's stand in favour of abortion and/or euthanasia, but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is considered remote material cooperation [with evil], which can be permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons." Continue reading

• Charlie Camosy is Associate Professor of Theological and Social Ethics at Fordham University, where he has taught since finishing his PhD in theology at Notre Dame in 2008.
• Image: Vimeo