Posted on 10/07/2005 9:08:56 AM PDT by West Coast Conservative
The Vatican will allow gay men into the priesthood if they can show they have been celibate for at least three years, leading Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported on Friday.
But it said the Vatican will ban men who "publicly manifest their homosexuality" or show an "overwhelming attraction" to homosexual culture "even if it is only intellectually."
The Vatican views on gay priests are contained in a secret 16-page document which is expected to be released next month.
The document, an "instruction" by the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education, covers one of the most sensitive issues in the Roman Catholic Church.
Officials at the Congregation for Catholic Education and the Vatican press office could not be reached for immediate comment.
The Corriere report said: "Candidates who show a homosexual tendency will not be allowed into the priesthood unless they can demonstrate that they have been able to remain chaste for at least three years."
Media reports last month, primarily in the United States, said the document would bar all gay men from being ordained priests, even those who are celibate.
Those reports caused concerns in many quarters in the Church that many good men would be excluded by a total ban.
The Church teaches that homosexuality is not a sin but that homosexual acts are, and it expects all priests, whether homosexual or heterosexual, to remain celibate.
Corriere and the weekly Panorama magazine both reported on Friday that Pope Benedict had approved the document this summer.
Panorama said its release would be accompanied by a written explanation by "an internationally known psychologist."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
And this is all that stands between these men and the alter boy? The church must still have a few homosexuals in the decision making levels of the church.
I really don't get this, how can you be celibate and gay? For that matter, how can you be celibate and heterosexual? What if you were only turned on by bestiality but had never actually given into your urges? Would that be OK? What if you really always wanted to kill someone but had resisted or your biggest urge was to set fire to some great public building but you managed to keep your arsonist tendencies to fantasy only? Would you still be allowed to be a priest then?
ping
Why would a man who is honestly trying to overcome this sin WANT to go into the priesthood where he would be faced with out-of-the-ordinary temptations on a daily basis?
So can married men be Priests if they are celibate?
"Candidates who show a homosexual tendency will not be allowed into the priesthood unless they can demonstrate that they have been able to remain chaste for at least three years."
Exactly how does one 'demonstrate' such chastity? Kind of takes all the fun out of being a gay priest.
if you don't think someone can be celibate and heterosexual, then how do you explain all the priests who keep celibate?
It's not difficult to do.
If the church was smart, they'd go back to what they originally allowed, and that's allowing preists to marry and have a family. What better way to promote their religion by allowing priests to show how family orientated they are.
The word "celibate" does not mean "not having sex", it means "not being married."
Check any dictionary, Reuters.
All this talk of "celibate homosexuals" makes no verbal or logical sense.
Every human being has a sexual orientation. Men called to the priesthood are not eunuchs; in fact, a eunuch cannot be validly ordained. Have you ever met an asexual human being? I haven't.
What if you were only turned on by bestiality but had never actually given into your urges? Would that be OK? What if you really always wanted to kill someone but had resisted or your biggest urge was to set fire to some great public building but you managed to keep your arsonist tendencies to fantasy only? Would you still be allowed to be a priest then?
Yes. The priesthood is made up of men, so it is, by definition, made up of sinners.
The same can be said about heterosexuals. Also, I don't understand why Catholic priests have to be celibate anyway? Why can't they marry? In almost every other Christian denomination they can marry. Jewish Rabbis (of which Jesus was one) can marry.
The same can be said of heterosexuals.
I agree
It's not difficult to do.
If celibacy was not difficult, there would be many more priests.
I agree. Its Eddie Haskell logic.
SHE-'No..I'm not gonna do it! You'll tell everyone.
EDDIE-I promise I won't.
SHE-'Ok'
Gives new meaning to the term "glory hole".
(My apologies to Father Joe and the rest of the decent Jesuits who have to put up with all this crap from their fellow SJers).
There is only one historical meaning of the Latin word caelibatus - not having married.
This is the only way the word is used in Catholic theological discourse.
And it is also the only definition of the word in the OED.
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