[NYer]

NOTE:

Several Vatican documents and letters over the years have said gays or men with homosexual tendencies should not be ordained, regardless of whether they can remain celibate.

A Feb. 2, 1961, Vatican document, “Instruction on the Careful Selection and Training of Candidates for the States of Perfection and Sacred Orders,” made clear homosexuals should be barred from the priesthood.

“(Advancement) to religious vows and ordination should be barred to those who are afflicted with evil tendencies to homosexuality or pederasty, since for them the common life and the priestly ministry would constitute serious dangers,” said the document from the then-Vatican’s congregation for religious.

A 1997 letter from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments says “admission may not take place if there exists a prudent doubt regarding the candidate’s suitability.” It does not specify that homosexuality constitutes a “prudent doubt,” but an American official at the Vatican, the Rev. Andrew Baker, has suggested in an article in the Jesuit magazine America that it does.

In 2002, Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez, then-prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, advised against allowing gays in the priesthood in a letter that was published in the congregation’s publication Notitiae.

The Vatican press office announced in November 2002, at the height of the U.S. clergy sex abuse scandal, that the Congregation for Catholic Education was drawing up guidelines for accepting candidates for the priesthood that would address the question of whether gays should be barred.

[NYer]

The cardinal also elaborated on the meaning of "transitory" problems.

"For example, during an adolescence not yet completed, some curiosity; or, under accidental circumstances, when drunk, or other particular conditions such as a person who has been in prison for many years. In these cases, the possible homosexual acts do not come from a deeply seated tendency, but are determined by the circumstances," he said.

Huh?

[vimto]

As a nonconformist I want to thank you catholics for the stand your pope is taking here.

[redhead]

bumping...

[Jaded]

Matt Foreman of America's National Gay and Lesbian Task Force called the document "appalling," saying it was an affront to thousands of gay priests. He accused the Vatican of "a calculated campaign to blame gay men for the church's own criminal conduct in fostering and covering up decades of sex abuse."

If it walks like a duck.... he must be ignoring the trend shown by the actual numbers. Many others do.

[Antoninus]

The Rev. Timothy Radcliff, former superior of the Dominican order, wrote in the British Catholic weekly the Tablet that the phrase "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" could be interpreted as concerning men with a "permanent homosexual orientation. But this cannot be correct since, as I have said, there are many excellent priests who are gay and who clearly have a vocation from God. Having worked with bishops and priests, diocesan and religious, all over the world, I have no doubt that God does call homosexuals to the priesthood, and they are among the most dedicated and impressive priests I have met," he wrote.

If nothing else, this document will bring the pro-homo cheerleaders out into the open. With any luck, they can then be shown the door.

[little jeremiah]

later read/pingout.

[Jeff Chandler]

Experts on sex offenders say homosexuals are no more likely than heterosexuals to molest young people

Experts at what? Certainly not math. Homosexuals are 15 times more likely.

[TradicalRC]

Matt Foreman of America's National Gay and Lesbian Task Force called the document "appalling," saying it was an affront to thousands of gay priests.

Well at least we are appalling the right people.

[side altar]

DIGNITY'S Second Biennial Convention was held in Boston, August 29 to September 1, 1975. Speakers for the occasion were (among others) Rev. Paul Shanley.