Posted on 10/07/2005 5:26:14 AM PDT by Abathar
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - 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."
WIDESPREAD CONTROVERSY
Reacting to earlier reports that the document would ban even celibate gays, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin told the British Catholic newspaper The Tablet last week:
"You don't write off a candidate for the priesthood simply because he is a gay man."
Martin told the Tablet that seminaries did not in the past give men enough support to help them mature in their sexuality.
"We need to provide services of support for these priests and this will involve helping them along their personal journey and reassuring them."
In his book "The Changing Face of the Priesthood," Father Donald Cozzens estimated that some 40 percent of U.S. priests are gay but only a tiny minority are practicing homosexuals.
The Corriere report by the paper's respected religious affairs correspondent Luigi Accattoli, which he said was based on "verbal indiscretions," said the testing period for celibacy would be the last three years of seminary study.
Some conservative Catholics cheered last month's media reports that the new document would ban even celibate gays.
Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, head of the U.S. Archdiocese for Military Services, caused a storm when he said that even homosexuals who had managed to remain celibate for 10 years or more should not be admitted into seminaries.
Such positions were met by much criticism in the rest of the Church, particularly in the United States.
The Vatican has been working on the instruction on homosexual men and the priesthood for years. It will be a reform of a 1961 document which said men with "perverse inclination" to homosexuality should not be ordained.
Don't the same rules apply to homos as to straights? Priests are to be celibate, period.
A priest who puts his service to God above his own needs and desires is fine with me, no matter what his sexuality. Don't ask, don't tell, like the military.
Those who cannot or will not control sexual urges should choose another form of service.
It is so over for the Vatican Hierarchy of the Catholic Church. They have no Courage and no Moral Compass.
Why not also say , after A Catholic Couple have been
divorced for three Years and haven't remarried They are free to marry again.
Makes about the same sense.
People who are homosexual do not think straight, that goes for homosexual priests too.
The term "Homosexual Priest" is an Oxymoron.
How about if they were celibate but promoted homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle?
Being Jewish, this is really none of my business, but it seems crazy for the Church to invite gays into the priesthood.
putting a homo in with a bunch of men is like putting a fox in the hen house...
if these queers want to join a religious order, let them join a nunnery!
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."No way. Queer Psyops.
Homosexuality is an activity. If you're not doing it, you're not it.
Otherwise, all this is saying is that people who are tempted and don't yield can be priests -- which, at best, surely describes all priests. (Leaving aside all other issues wrt RCC/priesthood.)
putting a homo in with a bunch of men is like putting a fox in the hen house...
if these queers want to join a religious order, let them join a nunnery!
oops, sorry for the dbl post...my pc must have hiccuped. :-)
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God
The effeminate is also described as catamite or soft and the abusers or themselves with mankind are also more commonly known as Sodomites or those who engage in sodomy.
Other passages which read about sodomy include:
Genesis 19:5-8; Exodus 22:19; Leviticus 18:22,23; 20:13,15,16; Deuteronomy 23:17; 27:21; Judges 19:22; 1 Kings 14:24; 15:12; 22:46; 2 Kings 23:7; Romans 1:24,26,27; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:9,10
IMHO, A good word study of 'perverse' by reading all verses so translated helps edify the understanding of this doctrine.
Isa 19:14 The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.
The existence of this perverse spirit in America or possibly the RCC is indicative of consequences from past unrepentant sinfulness, but is reversible by a return to God.
Considering the criterion for church leadership in Scripture, I see nothing outlandish in banning homosexuals from any position of church leadership.
On the contrary, those who are unrepentant and adversarial to all things holy would be consistent if they sought to mingle homosexuality with holiness in an effort to corrupt all things righteous.
For these reasons, IMHO, even if a previous homosexual repented and returned to God, his intent as a leader is the church will probably raise doubt on his credibility.
The same reason that a person who lusts after a woman in his heart is guilty of adultery. A homosexual who merely abstains from the physical act, but refuses to change his heart, is living in sin as opposed to living with the mind of Christ, which is commanded of every believer. Those who teach are held to even higher criterion than mere obedience to His will.
Reacting to earlier reports that the document would ban even celibate gays, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin told the British Catholic newspaper The Tablet last week:Methinks the Vatican is backpedaling."You don't write off a candidate for the priesthood simply because he is a gay man."
I favor enforcing the ban, not softening it.
IMHO, the passages in 1Cor 6 refering to those who will not inherit the Kingdom of God share a commonality that touches upon the way of thinking in one's heart. The root issue might be better found by touching on one of the other areas mentioned, such as liars or revilers or drunkards. The next few verses also stipulate this isn't an issue of the law, so the list of exclusionary descriptors isn't merely a list of criminal behavior.
IMHO, those who will not control their sexual urges, need to first focus on how they might have the mind of Christ. It comes by turning away from sin and returning to God. It's first a thinking exercise. The physical issues are minor compared to the thinking exercise in order to exercise the mind of Christ. This is the firt priority for the Christian to remain in fellowship with God on His terms.
The physical aspects, indeed manifest the heart and glaringly reflect where the fallen are inadequate.
Not sure I understand your point. Are you saying that anyone who is tempted to sin cannot be saved, according to Paul?
Dan
NO, of course not,...but there is no temptation that cannot be resisted through Him.
they are already there. The real issue is that the Church doesn't really talk about how to live a celibate life.
leading Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported ...So let me sum up for everyone:contained in a secret 16-page document ...
Congregation for Catholic Education and the Vatican press office could not be reached for immediate comment ...
The Corriere report said ...
Media reports last month ...
Corriere and the weekly Panorama magazine both reported ...
Panorama said its release would be accompanied by a written explanation by "an internationally known psychologist ...
Reacting to earlier reports ...
The Corriere report by the paper's respected religious affairs correspondent Luigi Accattoli ...
Reporters are reporting that other reporters have written reports about various respected coreesponent's reporting reports.
Yes but doesn't each person have to reconcile himself or herself to the Almighty?
Mercy plays an important part.
Nope, God does all the reconciliation, i.e. God reconciles man, not man reconciling God. God reconciles all mankind to Himself, and each person has to ratify that reconciliation by faith in Him through Christ.
EIRENE or Greek for the doctrine of Reconciliation is synonomous with making peace. Man can repent or turn away from disobedience, but the peacemaking is done by Him.
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