Vatican letter says norms on priesthood must be 'faithfully observed' (This is big!)

Catholic News Service ^ | November 30, 2005 | John Thavis

[NYer]

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A cover letter accompanying the Vatican's instruction on homosexuality and the priesthood said the new norms must be "faithfully observed" and taken into account in the drafting or updating of each country's seminary guidelines.

The letter also made clear that, while the text does not apply to those already ordained, priests with homosexual tendencies should not have educational roles in seminaries.

The letter from the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education went out to bishops in early November along with the nine-page instruction. The instruction was made public Nov. 29 but the cover letter was not; Catholic News Service obtained a copy of the letter.

It was signed by Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the education congregation, and by Archbishop J. Michael Miller, congregation secretary.

The Vatican instruction said the church cannot allow priestly ordination of men who are active homosexuals, who have "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" or who support the "gay culture."

The accompanying letter said it should be "clear that the aforementioned norms are to be faithfully observed by all superiors" involved in admission of candidates to the priesthood.

The instruction, the letter said, "does not call into question the validity of the ordination and the situation of priests who, in fact, have been ordained with homosexual tendencies" or of priests who have manifested homosexual tendencies after ordination.

"Like all other priests, they must remember the promise that they made on the day of their ordination, to live perfect chastity in celibacy," the letter said.

Such priests should continue in their ministry, it said, but added: "Because of the particular responsibility of those charged with the formation of future priests, they are not to be appointed as rectors or educators in seminaries."

The letter offered a brief genesis of the instruction, saying the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith -- headed at the time by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the present pope -- had a key role in its inception and development.

It said that in 1996 the doctrinal congregation invited the education congregation to prepare an instruction on the topic. As the work went forward, the doctrinal congregation "forwarded abundant documentation on the question," it said.

The draft texts were circulated and evaluated by the doctrinal congregation and six other Vatican departments, including those dealing with clergy, sacraments, Eastern churches, evangelization, religious orders and canon law.

Drafts of the instruction were presented at plenary sessions of the education congregation in 1998, 2002 and 2005. The congregation members approved the final version in early February 2005, convinced that it was "helpful and very useful," the letter said.

The letter did not say whether the text had been reviewed by Pope John Paul II, who was too sick to meet with participants of the education congregation plenary last February and who died two months later. Pope Benedict XVI approved the text Aug. 31 and ordered it published.

[TheSpottedOwl]

What a cool bumpersticker : )

[Claud]

LOL

[Dionysiusdecordealcis]

He didn't have any seminarians left! Toward the end there were some years when he had no new seminarians at all.

[Dionysiusdecordealcis]

Look, this is happening anyway. The orthodox ones are bursting at the seams and the others are dying on the vine. It's only a matter of time. The instruction and letter will hasten the process.

[Talking_Mouse]

I could be wrong but I sense that Pope Benedict XVI is following a master plan of his own design.

I think the Pope Benedict XVI is following Someone else's gameplan. I think He had this in mind well before the pope was born.

[RKBA Democrat]

"but how will it be enforced?"

Exactly. I'm not as optimistic about all this. Yes, there might someday be a real house cleaning, but I doubt it'll be on this Pope's watch. What I suspect will happen is that the reprobates will simply cool it for a few years on the hope that they'll be able to wait the Pope out.

"The mess" took more than a generation to create, it'll likely take a generation to fix. While I do believe we'll see improvements in the state of affairs in the western church, I'm not so sure those will come to fruition within the next 20 years.