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New Vatican Document on Homosexuality and the Priesthood Coming Before Fall 2005
LifeSite ^ | December 13, 2004

Posted on 12/14/2004 3:09:01 AM PST by NYer

VATICAN CITY, December 13, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - John Thavis, the Vatican correspondent for the Catholic News Service, an agency of the US Bishops Conference, reports that the Vatican will soon publish a document concerning homosexuality and the priesthood. The report notes that Vatican officials are preparing an inspection (or visitation) of US seminaries to commence in the Fall of 2005 and the document is expected prior to the visitation.

Bishop John C. Nienstedt of New Ulm, Minn., chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Priestly Formation, said in an interview in Rome, "I think they intend to have it out by the time the visitation begins."

The Vatican has confirmed several times that men with homosexual sexual orientations should not be ordained. The December 2002 bulletin of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments contained a letter signed by Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, who has since retired as the head of the Congregation, which said ordaining such men would be imprudent and "very risky."

A prominent Vatican document dealing with the issue was released as early as 1961. The 1961 document from the Sacred Congregation for Religious prohibits the admission of homosexuals to the diocesan priesthood and religious orders. The document states: "Those affected by the perverse inclination to homosexuality or pederasty should be excluded from religious vows and ordination," because priestly ministry would place such persons in "grave danger".

The document is being prepared by the Congregation for Catholic Education in consultation with several other Vatican agencies, including the doctrinal congregation. In a report earlier this year, the education congregation described it as an "instruction on the criteria and norms for the discernment in questions regarding homosexuality in view of the admission of candidates to the seminary and to sacred orders."

Commenting on the coming document which has been more than five years in the making, Bishop Nienstedt said, ""I think it's going to be a balanced document, because the whole question of homosexuality not only has psychological dimensions but also has varying degrees of a person acting out or not acting out." He added, "So the whole question has to be nuanced considerably: 'What is homosexuality?' 'What are the homosexual attractions?' and that sort of thing. I think this document will be helpful because it is going to address those questions."


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: homosexuality; priesthood; vatican
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To: superiorslots
I am a Catholic and think this is a bunch of bull. How do the other faiths get along with allowing their pastors to marry??

Only last night, Marcus Grodi, a former Baptist minister and convert to the Catholic Church, was discussing this with his guest on The Journey Home. He repeatedly demonstrated how often, as a minister, he had to constantly weigh his family obligations against church obligations. It was oftentimes, a heavy burden, especially with 7 children to support. Keep in mind that protestant ministers do not have to contend with the volume of masses said in the RC Church, including Holy Days of Obligation. They don't hear confessions, or lead novenas.

I too am a catholic but attend an Eastern Catholic Church. Like many of the Eastern Rites, our church allows for married clergy. However, there are restrictions. Those who wish to serve as priests outside of their homeland, are chose from the celibate clergy. My pastor has chosen celibacy for the reasons I mentioned above. His schedule is such that he would not have time to properly devote to both his parishioners and his family.

21 posted on 12/14/2004 4:30:22 AM PST by NYer ("Blessed be He who by His love has given life to all." - final prayer of St. Charbel)
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To: newsgatherer
In Pauls letter to Timothy are the job qualifications to be a minister of God, amongst them: "A man married to one wife."

"amongst them", yes, but not limited to that one condition. Paul himself chose celibacy and encouraged it.

1 Cor 7:6-7
This I say by way of concession, however, not as a command. Indeed, I wish everyone to be as I am (single? widowed?), but each has a particular gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.
1 Cor 7:32-34
I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit. A married woman, on the other hand, is anxious about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

22 posted on 12/14/2004 4:38:44 AM PST by NYer ("Blessed be He who by His love has given life to all." - final prayer of St. Charbel)
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To: NYer

"NUANCED CAREFULLY"

That means that the Queer Establishment will "nuance" their interpretation and totally ignore any restrictions suggested by the Vatican.


23 posted on 12/14/2004 5:14:00 AM PST by ninenot (Minister of Membership, TomasTorquemadaGentlemen'sClub)
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To: tiamat

Your understanding of the situation is straight from the Protestant playbook.

Thanks for your assistance--but no thanks.


24 posted on 12/14/2004 5:15:19 AM PST by ninenot (Minister of Membership, TomasTorquemadaGentlemen'sClub)
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To: MadAnthony1776

Nope.

First off, a homosexual predator won't "solve his problem" by marrying a woman.

Secondly, you and I both know that married clerics also hop into adultery quite regularly.

It's a matter of self-control, just like you tell your children (I hope...)


25 posted on 12/14/2004 5:17:37 AM PST by ninenot (Minister of Membership, TomasTorquemadaGentlemen'sClub)
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To: NYer

You are so kind and patient to explain this AGAIN!


26 posted on 12/14/2004 5:18:48 AM PST by netmilsmom (Zell on DEM Christianity, "They can hum the tune, but can't sing the song.")
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To: NYer
But, it is not surprising that the 'married priesthood' is driven by the feminist movement.

Uuuuhhhhnnnhhh...we used to call them "fems"---at our all-male Jebbie high school.

A fem is a fem is a fem, regardless of the tools God gave them, so to speak.

27 posted on 12/14/2004 5:20:10 AM PST by ninenot (Minister of Membership, TomasTorquemadaGentlemen'sClub)
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To: ninenot

Is it true?

Or not?

DID the Church indeed inherit lands, money and goods from people who entered the priesthood?


There WAS motive.

The Church did do it.

Ir has been documented.

I can back up what i say.


28 posted on 12/14/2004 5:21:50 AM PST by tiamat (Solis Invicti)
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To: NYer

The American Church, in particular a few diocese turned their backs on the church doctrine on ordaned homosexuals, and now those diocese are full of homosexuals so much so that they now control those diocese. Trading sex for favors and actively recruiting more homosexuals into them.

To this day, I still doubt highly that most lay folk of the church understand how rampant homosexuality has become in certain dioceses of the Catholic Church in america.

It needs to be stopped, and the only way it will be is if the Vatican itself kills it by purging the church of it.


29 posted on 12/14/2004 5:24:20 AM PST by HamiltonJay ("You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.")
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To: NYer
Vatican Firms Up Plans For US Seminary Visitation in 2005
30 posted on 12/14/2004 5:24:27 AM PST by marshmallow
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To: newsgatherer
The answer to that is simple, they, the Full Gospel Christian churches, base their practices and preachings on unadulterated Scripture.

Since they generally use a fragment of the bible (there are 7 books missing) and usually a bad translation (the King James might be good poetically, but a lot of meanings have been changed), I wouldn't say that.

People are looking for guidelines to follow and a community that follows the same guidelines. There are those of us out there who are Catholic who follow traditional guidelines and we don't let the modernists destroy our relationship with God and His Bride.

31 posted on 12/14/2004 5:28:54 AM PST by Desdemona
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To: tiamat

>>Simple Money and Land grab.<<

Wow! That Catholic Church, EVIL it is!!!


Why shouldn't the money these people had go to whatever order they went into. Who do you think fed them and kept them for years? Manna from heaven fell into the Abbies or Convents?????
Nothing is simple in God's eyes. There are Biblical reasons why Priests and Nuns do not marry, but in a world where Catholics are fair game, it MUST have to do with Greed.




32 posted on 12/14/2004 5:30:14 AM PST by netmilsmom (Zell on DEM Christianity, "They can hum the tune, but can't sing the song.")
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To: NYer
men with homosexual sexual orientations should not be ordained

Shouldn't be made bishop either.

33 posted on 12/14/2004 5:32:07 AM PST by Slyfox
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To: ninenot

Agreed, I didn't mean to imply they don't. I just feel it's harder to offer guidance to married couples when you don't have an understanding of the problems married couples face. It be like me trying to teach someone something that I'd not had experience in. You can possibly do it to a degree but not quite as well as if you'd had experience.


34 posted on 12/14/2004 5:32:23 AM PST by MadAnthony1776
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To: Slyfox
men with homosexual sexual orientations should not be ordained

Shouldn't be made bishop either.

Or cardinal, for that matter.

35 posted on 12/14/2004 5:33:02 AM PST by Desdemona
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To: NYer

"This choice is freely made by those men who feel 'called' to the priesthood."


Therein lies the problem, 'men who feel' "called", rather than men who are called.


36 posted on 12/14/2004 5:34:36 AM PST by Just mythoughts
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To: ninenot

I can point out many a pastor who's fooled around with married women.... And they are in faiths that allow their ministers and Pastors to marry.

Marriage will not end sexual perversion... it might open the career path to priesthood for folks who have never considered it before, but in terms of it ending sexual picadillos... hardly. A predatory pedophile is a predatory pedaphile, and while it may not be PC, the bulk of predatory pedophiles are ineed homosexual, at least in the studies I have seen on the subject. These sorts of people will ALWAYS be attracted to positions where they have power and/or access to youngsters (preferably both). Which is exactly why the Boy Scouts has to be ALWAYS on its guard against homosexuals trying to get into their midst and have access to the kids. It is also why the Church must have an absolutely no tolerance of homosexuality in its ranks (above and beyond the spiritual view of the practice), its simply common sense.

Predatory pedophiles are always going try to get jobs in schools, day cares, churches, summer camps, etc. A predator must have access to their prey and these positions offer this to them, not only access, but also power over their victims as well.

Marriage will not solve the predatory pedophile issue in the church. Understanding that while homosexuals are children of God, and deserve our prayers and frankly pity for their rejection of him and his teachings, that compassion and pity does not extend so far as to dillude ourselves that they are to be trusted around children, regardless of how nice they may be.


37 posted on 12/14/2004 5:34:59 AM PST by HamiltonJay ("You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.")
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To: MadAnthony1776
I just feel it's harder to offer guidance to married couples when you don't have an understanding of the problems married couples face.

I don't think that that is necessarily true. Sometimes someone who knows nothing about either party and doesn't take sides, not having been there, can see what's happening more clearly.

38 posted on 12/14/2004 5:36:20 AM PST by Desdemona
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To: netmilsmom

Gently

Because usually we are friends.

What happens to little sibs or nephews and nieces when the priest of nun dies?

The Church has so much.

i tell you true, it hurts me to see Catholic people in South America starving when there is gold on the altar in a nice parish elsewhere.

But regardless of what decide, I DO wish you a Very Merry Christmas!


39 posted on 12/14/2004 5:36:24 AM PST by tiamat (Solis Invicti)
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To: Just mythoughts
Therein lies the problem, 'men who feel' "called", rather than men who are called.

That's right. That's why they should seek out spiritual direction to help them find out if what they are 'feeling' is from God or not.

40 posted on 12/14/2004 5:38:24 AM PST by Slyfox
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