| Gay men may be banned from priesthood | |
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| Ref: Ekklesia Theological News (k) Pope Benedict XVI is said to be currently scrutinising a draft recommendation which would allow the Vatican to automatically exclude gay men from training as priests. Currently, there is no bar to non-heterosexual men becoming priests provided they adhere to celibacy. However the recommendation has been written in response to a recent wave of sexual abuse scandals within the church, and implies that homosexual priests are more likely to abuse young people than heterosexual priests. The Vatican also argues that it would be unfair for gay priests to train alongside non-gay priests, because they say it puts all the men under pressure and in the way of temptation. Benedict XVI is said to be likely to approve the recommendation, although it may be hard to prove the sexuality of candidates for priesthood. He is known to be a strong supporter of the Catholic Church’s traditional stance on contraception, homosexuality, priest celibacy and the role of women. |
I hope so.
Even with celibacy for Priests, those who are gay do persist in displaying an emotional attitude of sorts about issues that heterosexuals do not. I can't quite put my finger on it but it is noticable.
I wonder if this will also include gay females excluded from Orders - another issue the Church will eventually need to address.
It will be something that will be obvious well before a young man is close to being ordained. It is just that Seminaries in the US have refused to do anything about it, and in some instances have kicked out faithful young men who have complained about the atmosphere created by the attitudes that would allow men who reject the teachings of the Church to be ordained to the priesthood.
Theoretically gay men might become fine priests if they don't engage in sex. In practice, they DO engage in sex, and in many cases, quite a lot of it--and with boys. They're wrecking the church.
The Pope cannot come down too hard on these creeps imho.