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Either the Catholic Church's leadership has got it all wrong, or it is a crafty political operator - or both.

It was recently reported that the Vatican will carry out a seminary review, called an "apostolic visitation" that will involve sending teams to conduct interviews with more than 4,500 students and faculty members in 229 seminaries. Their main task will be to uncover homosexuals.

Almost simultaneously, news leaked out that Pope Benedict XVI has approved a new Vatican policy document according to which, men with homosexual tendencies should not be ordained as Catholic priests. The view is that homosexuality is a weakness, an intrinsic disorder that makes priests unable to serve in ministry.

The sums of these two items? Let the hunt begin. The Catholic Church has decided to purge gay men from its ranks.

It will not be a simple task. After all, the Catholic Church is probably the world's largest employer of homosexuals. The damage caused by these two initiatives will be profound: shattered lives and a weakened institution.

Thousands of good men who have faithfully devoted their entire adult lives to serving church and community will feel persecuted. Whether or not they ever act upon their homosexual orientation - and most haven't, adhering to their vows of celibacy - these priests and seminarians realize they are now targets and unwelcome.

If priesthood within the Catholic Church requires celibacy, why should the clergy leadership be obsessed with sexual orientation? Whether gay, bisexual or straight, Catholic priests are required to abstain from any sexual behaviour. The emphasis should therefore be on compliance with celibacy, not on homosexual orientation.

It has been suggested by the leadership that this hunt for homosexuals will address the problem of pedophilic predators within the church.

But their logic has a major flaw. The majority of pedophiles are either heterosexual, or don't care about the gender of their victims. The church's actions therefore doesn't address the root problem and only reinforce the stereotype of gay men as pedophiles.

Ah, but the majority of victims were boys, the church leadership has stated. As suggested in a recent Globe and Mail editorial, "perhaps so many more males were molested than females simply because priests have easier access to altar boys." Male youth were available to a higher degree than females, thus facilitating predatory actions on boys.

It's nice to see the church finally express some concern for the problem, but it sure took it a long time - and millions of dollars in lawsuits. How about the cover-up by bishops and the routine transfer of problem priests who never faced any discipline for their deplorable behaviour?

The two initiatives also seem to be a convenient way of casting blame for the many cases of abuse onto homosexual clergy members and away from the church leaders.

The Catholic Church is cut off from reality, cutting off its own growth and cutting down its own clergy. It will only serve to drive people to more progressive faith communities (not a bad outcome in itself) or turn them off completely from churches - which would be quite unfortunate.

Is this the legacy you're striving for, Pope Benedict XVI?

Gilles Marchildon is executive director of Egale Canada, a non-profit organization that advances equality for lesbian, gay and trans-identified people across Canada. A former Catholic, he is now a Unitarian Universalist.