In his talk, Rose presented evidence from his book that the so-called crisis in the Catholic priesthood is artificial and contrived. The shortage of priests today, according to Rose, is self-imposed. It exists, said Rose, because most of America’s seminaries have in place a "system designed to frustrate genuine vocations" among candidates for the priesthood who are identified as orthodox Catholics and "are perceived as threats to liberal agendas, including liberated sexuality and New Age values."

The number one obstacle, according to Rose, is "the biased application screening process at the level of the diocese or religious order. This is where the candidate is subjected to a litmus test, not to determine the candidate’s suitability (for the priesthood), but to ascertain his level of political correctness."

According to Rose’s research, psychological screening of candidates to enter the seminary are often administered by psychologists who do not even believe in the doctrines of the Catholic Church, especially the teaching on sexual morality. Indeed, Rose pointed to the case of a psychiatrist in a large U.S. diocese who was the leader of the local Masonic lodge and had indicated his distrust for all organize religion. In spite of this, the local bishop employed him to screen candidates for the Catholic priesthood.

Another major obstacle faced by orthodox candidates for the priesthood occurs when those responsible for recruiting priests endorse "what is sometime called the gay agenda, and justification and acceptance of homosexual practices - even in the seminary itself."

Rose discovered that many Catholic officials involved in recruiting and teaching priests in the seminaries were themselves homosexuals, despite Catholic teaching that such conduct is disordered, sinful, and unacceptable under any circumstances. At the diocese level, "angry feminist nuns" were frequently found to be in charge of assessing a candidate s fitness for entering the seminary.

During the questions and answers session that followed his talk, Rose was asked how the scandals in the seminaries could have continued for as long as they did. "There are three main factors," responded Rose: "Number one, denial, number two, denial, and number three, denial." When asked about the oversight committee appointed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to supervise the implementation of so-called reforms that came out of the Dallas meeting, Rose was not optimistic. He noted that several of the committee’s appointees - such as Bill Clinton’s ex-chief of staff Leon Panetta, and Clinton’s defense lawyer during the Paula Jones trial, Bob Bennett - were "part of the problem, not the answer." He was optimistic about change now beginning in some seminaries, but indicated that the problem was a long way from being over.

Michael Rose was also the co-recipient, along with Sister Mary Prisca , R.S.M., of the St. Michael the Archangel Defender of the Faith Award given annually by Catholics In Action.