“The true homosexual, the authentic one, is the one who is hungry for sex,” “Homosexuality can be cured.” – Amedeo Cencini, Canossian priest, psychologist, and formator.
There are words that cannot be ignored. Not when they are spoken by someone who forms, guides, judges, and at times destroys the vocation of young men journeying toward the priesthood. Or worse still, someone who attempts to manipulate already ordained priests, imposing the idea that the only way to be “good priests” is to blindly obey everything he says. Not when those words become stigma, prejudice, and arbitrary diagnoses. Not when the man saying them enjoys the protection of a professional order, which defends him even when he is reported for the gravity of his remarks in a university setting. Just hours ago, Amedeo Cencini even had the audacity to comment on the death of a young Italian priest, speaking of hope and faith, claiming that this was the real issue. Essentially, if a priest is in crisis, it’s his own fault: he’s not able to turn the crisis into growth, he has no faith, and he can’t hope. This can no longer be left unspoken. The deaths of so many young priests are not just personal tragedies, but the bitter fruit of a distorted narrative, promoted – relentlessly – by men who were supposed to care, and instead judged, simplified, crushed. And what wounds even more is that these very men, rather than step aside in silence, still find the courage – or the arrogance – to speak, even in the face of death. When all they should do is disappear in silence, if not to ask for forgiveness.
Amedeo Cencini has been for decades the reference point for so-called “permanent formation” of the clergy, influencing – often without any real oversight – the approach adopted by dioceses, religious orders, host homes, and seminaries. He is the one who promoted a certain idea of affectivity in the Church, and the results are clear. And, true to his cowardly nature, when summoned to account for his statements before the Order of Psychologists of Veneto, he justified himself by saying: “I only said what the Church says.” Too bad that much of what the “Church says” is based on what he himself wrote. That should make us reflect on what the real “sources” were that the Catholic Church used to shape its views on sexuality and emotional life.
But it doesn’t stop there. Because some of Cencini’s claims don’t even appear in the Catechism or in official Church documents: “They were cut out, censored,” he himself admits in a lecture still available online. After all, Cencini says, “today there is a lot of ignorance, and unfortunately no one follows these things.” One wonders why. Yet the Order of Psychologists of Veneto, instead of thoroughly investigating his statements and writings, chose to protect one of its own, who enjoys “powerful protectors.”
Conversion Therapy
While in many countries conversion therapy is legally banned, recognized as a form of abuse and manipulation with no scientific basis, in Italy the Order of Psychologists continues to protect those who publicly promote it, ignoring reports and the overwhelming evidence of harm caused.
This legal vacuum has allowed, particularly in ecclesiastical and para-clinical environments, the persistence of practices disguised as “spiritual” or “vocational accompaniment,” which in reality aim to “correct” sexual orientation, seen as a pathology or wound to be healed. Often imposed on seminarians and young religious, these experiences take place in seminaries, religious communities, lay associations (like Nuovi Orizzonti), private studios, or Church-affiliated environments. Their spread is facilitated by institutional ambiguity and the complicit silence of professional bodies which, despite being aware of these abuses, continue to tolerate grave ethical violations. The consequences are not abstract: many victims report years of guilt, isolation, and deep psychological trauma, even leading to suicidal ideation.
Several countries have chosen the path of legal protection. Malta, in 2016, became the first country in the world to completely ban these practices, even for adults. Germany, in 2020, banned them for minors, with penalties of up to one year in prison. France and Canada introduced even tougher laws: in France, up to two years in prison and a €30,000 fine; in Canada, it is a federal crime, punishable with up to five years in prison for mere promotion. In Spain, several autonomous communities – including Madrid, Valencia, and Andalusia – have already passed laws, while a national law is under debate. In the United States, over 20 states – including California, New York, Illinois, and Colorado – have banned conversion therapy for minors, even without a federal law. The Supreme Court of Brazil has banned promotion of such practices by psychologists, deeming them violations of human rights.
Pedophilia – Homosexuality
Thanks to the delusional theories of Amedeo Cencini – and his colleague Tony Anatrella, a French priest who spent his life fighting homosexuality only to be found in bed with boys – there are still people in the Church who argue that there is a link between homosexuality and pedophilia. Both, of course, are labeled illnesses.
This is a false and unfounded equation, yet it still circulates in the rhetoric of many so-called “ecclesial psychologists”and bishops. But is it still ignorance – or is it ideology disguised as “care”?
Two Different Realities, Deliberately Confused
Pedophilia is a recognized psychological disorder, classified in the DSM-5 as a Paraphilic Disorder (302.2), involving recurrent sexual fantasies, impulses, or behaviors toward prepubescent children, typically under 13, causing clinically significant distress or impairment in social functioning.
Homosexuality, on the other hand, is not a disease, nor a personality disorder. It was removed from the DSM-II in 1973 by the American Psychiatric Association and in 1990 by the World Health Organization, which does not include it among mental or behavioral disorders in either ICD-10 or ICD-11. And yet, in the discourse of ecclesiastical formators like Cencini, the confusion is systematic. Even homosexuality is described as an “incapacity for otherness”, and on several occasions, Cencini has referred to pedophilia as “compensatory behavior.”
After all, figures like Cencini studied in Pontifical Universities, whose curricula are based on religious ideologies and moralism, but lack any scientific foundation. It is a discrediting technique that not only brands homosexuality as “morally unacceptable” but subtly links it to criminal deviance.
The Effect: Guilt and Misdirection
This deliberate confusion creates victims. Not only among homosexual individuals, treated as deviants, but also within the wider ecclesial community, which is deprived of real tools to combat abuse. Those who speak of homosexuality in such terms are diverting attention from the true causes of sexual abuse in the Church. Numerous studies have shown that “there is no causal link between homosexual orientation and pedocriminal acts.” Many other studies discredit conversion therapy, and instead highlight how people are brainwashed and forced to live repressed lives.
Institutional Responsibility
If all this is true, why do such theories still circulate undisturbed? Why do religious orders, seminaries, dioceses, and even Episcopal Conferences continue to entrust formation to individuals without serious academic credentials, or who practice in a hybrid, ethically dubious manner?
A critical point is the ambiguity of figures like “priest-psychologists” or “nun-psychologists”, who blur the lines between spiritual, psychological, and disciplinary roles. In the absence of real oversight, they can destroy the inner and vocational life of a person, leaving them in guilt, isolation, and despair. On multiple occasions, Amedeo Cencini has spoken of “structural homosexuals who believe their homosexuality is normal, behaving like left-handers in sex.” Statements that are both grotesque and dangerous, and which should have led to his expulsion from the Order of Psychologists. Instead, the Order chose to protect him.
The real tragedy is that the “priest-psychologist” does not aim to help people grow, but to control and judge. He mixes psychology with spirituality in a way that benefits neither the faithful nor the patient.
The Church Has a Choice to Make
Either the Church continues to tolerate – out of convenience or fear – an ideology disguised as pastoral care, or it chooses the path of true reform, rooted in justice and truth. A real shift in direction also means becoming credible in the fight against real abuse – psychological, spiritual, conscience-based, power-based, and sexual – and in forming priests who are serene, mature, and aware of their identity. The fact that a man who spreads such nonsense sits on the Child Protection Service of the Italian Bishops’ Conference tells us a lot about his approach: confusing pathology with orientation, reducing the drama of abuse to a matter of emotional compensation. A dangerous distortion that threatens the very people the system claims to protect.
This is not just about public credibility, but about the psychological and spiritual health of thousands of men and women in consecrated life. A Church that confuses sin with illness, illness with crime, and crime with sin, is not a Church in discernment. It is a Church in delirium.
d.R.A.
Silere non possum