Vatican to bar celibate gays from the priesthood

[Goofball]

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

This is simply sublime in its sillyness...

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1127384285808&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968705899037&t=TS_Home

[Sjakihata]

I'd love to laugh or cry with you - but I cannot log in

[Don Corleone]

Can anyone say 'Fall guy'. As long as the papacy continues to maintain an aristocratic form of government which we learned centuries ago is ripe for corruption, these scandals will proceed. The problem isn't the orientation of the priests. As far as I know, Saturnus please correct me, pedophile IS an orientation... not adult men, not adult women but children.

If they don't want to let homosexuals serve on dogmatic grounds, I suppose that's their right. But if they want to solve the abuse issues, they're going to need to find a way to make bishops accountable, to somebody who has a vested interest in something other than the collection plate.

[Goofball]

I'd love to laugh or cry with you - but I cannot log in

Sorry, I always forget about that. Here you go:


Vatican to bar celibate gays as priests



NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY - A Vatican document will be released in the coming weeks that reaffirms the Roman Catholic Church's belief that homosexuals shouldn't be ordained priests, a Vatican official said Thursday.


The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the document has not been released, said the "instruction" from the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education would contain "some new things and some old things" and would be released well before the end of the year.

That timing means the document will be released just as a Vatican-mandated evaluation of all U.S. seminaries, ordered in the wake of the U.S. clergy sex abuse scandal, gets underway.

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, Rev. Andrew Baker, has suggested in an article in the Jesuit magazine America that it does.

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

He said their ordination would be "absolutely inadvisable and imprudent, and from the pastoral point of view, very risky."

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.

Catholic World News, a conservative news agency, reported earlier this week that the document had actually been in the works since 1994.

The agency said the new document would indicate that men with homosexual tendencies shouldn't be ordained even if they are celibate "because their condition suggests a serious personality disorder which detracts from their ability to serve as ministers."

In an apparently new element, the agency said the document would also say that already ordained priests, if they have homosexual tendencies, would be "strongly urged to renew their dedication to chastity and a manner of life appropriate to the priesthood."

The American prelate overseeing the evaluations, Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, said earlier this month that most gay candidates for the priesthood struggle to remain celibate and the church must "stay on the safe side" by restricting their enrolment.

He stressed that the church was not "hounding" gays out of the priesthood, but wants to enrol seminarians who can maintain their vows of celibacy.

The document has been controversial from the start, and there had been speculation that it may never be released because of its sensitive nature. Some priests have said the document is sorely needed. Others say it will do more harm than good, antagonizing existing homosexual priests and driving others underground.

09:49ET 22-09-05

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

I thought it was the actual gay sex they objected to, rather than just homosexual desire?

[m52nickerson]

So now even less people will becomes priest, thats a good way to go.

[Papewaio]

Their club, their rules.

But I can understand it would be confusing to the trannies since the priests all where dresses...

[GonZ]

I don't know why this is surprising.

The church is not renowned for it's forward thinking or it's tolerance. It can't really change without admitting errors in the past.

Don't expect any radical changes in thinking any time soon.

[ICantSpellDawg]

the catholic church makes its own decisions

i believe that the only thing that saves it from the fate of many protestant churches is it unwillingness to bend to the will of the congregation.

[Zharakov]

You should see what we Orthodox do...


Being Gay is a verry bad thing here... Unless you'r not Orthodox... In which case its ok ~D

[doc_bean]

Being gay is not a sin, acting on the desire to **** people of the same sex is. Everyone has sinful tendencies they need to overcome, I really don't see how this fits in with the christian view of the world. Then again, I don't believe in a lot of what the catholic church says and does, and I'm (supposed to be) catholic.

[A.Saturnus]

At least ithis is now really proof that the catholic church has a different view on what homosexuality is than Gawain.

Sorry Gawain I dragged you in again ~;)

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Being gay is not a sin, acting on the desire to **** people of the same sex is. Everyone has sinful tendencies they need to overcome, I really don't see how this fits in with the christian view of the world. Then again, I don't believe in a lot of what the catholic church says and does, and I'm (supposed to be) catholic.
Actually, 1st Letter of Paul to the Cornithians states somewhere that gays won't get into Heaven...I don't know if that makes it a sin or not, but it seems ominous, no?

[DemonArchangel]

Ok, just one quick question.

How do you determine if someone is a gay or a pedophile, do you honestly expect ANYONE to just blurt out: "Hey! I'm a gay/like f***ing little kids!"

[Kraxis]

Actually, 1st Letter of Paul to the Cornithians states somewhere that gays won't get into Heaven...I don't know if that makes it a sin or not, but it seems ominous, no?
Yes, but consider this: Did he make a destinction about the thought of doing it, and doing it? I think he did. I think he actually used a wording that implied actually 'doing', rather than 'being'.
In any case, I still think it is wrong, as gays can't deselect their sexuality, just like the rest of us can't. Why should they be denied their chance of happiness?

[Zharakov]

If the Catholics want to hate Gays... Let them.

Who cares?

[Kraxis]

If the Catholics want to hate Gays... Let them.

Who cares?
If the Nazis want to hate Jews who cares?