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The Rev. Fred Daley, a gay, Roman Catholic priest, had grown increasingly disturbed by Vatican pronouncements over the years that homosexuals were unfit for the clergy."> Then the situation escalated — some church leaders suggested that gays were responsible for the clergy sex abuse crisis. Daley was so angry, he did something last year that almost no other gay Catholic cleric in the country has done: He came out to his bishop, parishioners and his entire community to show that homosexuals were faithfully working in the church."I'm as much a member of the church as anybody else," said Daley, of...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A new Vatican document will bar from the priesthood practicing homosexuals, men whose gay tendencies are "deeply rooted," or who openly espouse a gay culture, a leading Italian newspaper reported on Friday. Il Giornale of Milan printed what it said were excerpts from the eagerly awaited document, expected to be issued at the end of this month. "The Church cannot admit to the priesthood those who practice homosexuality, have deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or those who support the so-called 'gay culture,'" the newspaper quoted the document as saying. In recent months there have been numerous leaks...

There has been increasingly more and more debate concerning the new document from the Vatican on the ordination of homosexual men to the priesthood. Since I am writing this before the release of the Vatican’s document on the subject, it not proper to assume what the Vatican will or will not do. This has not stopped many men, self-identified as homosexuals, from chastising the pope and church authorities over the document while its contents were mere speculation. It is particularly distressing to hear the claim made that single, celibate men have the right to ordination if they “feel” they...

Rome, Nov. 03, 2005 (CNA) - The document from the Congregation for Catholic Education on the admittance of homosexuals in seminaries will be published this Friday. The Document counts on the approval of Pope Benedict XVI, and reaffirms the Catholic position that homosexuals can not be accepted into seminaries.The text refering exclusively to the candidates to priesthood, is based upon the Catholic position regarding homosexuality, and is placed in a context in which the issue has been raised acutely. Morevoer, the Church has addressed the issue in numerous occasions. In the past months, the Secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education, Archbishop Michael Miller, has been visiting the...

It is fascinating to watch all the Catholic-bashers come out of the secular or sectarian closet. Their pretext is that the Roman Catholic Church is codifying its position on potential priests who are homosexual. With a mingling of ignorance, self-delusion and trendy cliches, the same sort of people who in the past often denied Catholics civil rights and employment have found another stick with which to beat their foe. Nobody should be surprised why this happens. Catholicism is an immutable guide and guard, standing firm against moral decay and materialistic extremism. It's a mirror, reflecting the absurdity of the modern...

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...

Vatican visitation seen more than just about gays

It appears that Pope Benedict XVI has given his approval to a policy statement that men with a homosexual orientation should not be admitted to seminary and should be barred from receiving Holy Orders in the Roman Catholic Church. The Congregation for Catholic Education has prepared the statement for the Pope’s signature which will likely be issued in the form of a standard “Instruction” at the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican in October and will be one of the first actual official documents promulgated in Benedict’s pontificate. While this statement and position is not new—it is actually a re-statement...

On the day that the Vatican's gay-hunters began their work here in St. Louis, I received a letter from a priest I admire. "I am a Roman Catholic priest from the Archdiocese of St. Louis who happens to be gay," he wrote. "When it comes to my Church and her teachings on homosexuality, I cannot help but find myself both hurt and ashamed. I, like so many theologians, fellow priests, sisters, and Americans, find the Church's teaching regarding homosexuality inconsistent with the broader understanding of human dignity, respect and equality. "The Church chooses in matters of sexuality to bring very...

Speculation about the release of a Vatican document containing restrictions barring homosexuals from entering the priesthood has stirred debate and emotions both across the nation and at Notre Dame. The restrictions, which would require Vatican representatives to investigate the 229 U.S. seminaries for "evidence of homosexuality," have been reported by news agencies but not been officially confirmed. But R. Scott Appleby, director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and an expert on the Catholic Church's recent sexual abuse scandals, called this possible move by the Vatican "sadly punitive." "If a gay man feels called to the priesthood, [under...

News reports surrounding the review of Roman Catholic seminaries in the United States that the Vatican has organized have focused on the possibility that Rome plans to bar gay men from ordination to the priesthood, regardless of their readiness to remain faithful to their pledge of celibacy. Such a ban would have serious consequences, of course. It would reverberate far beyond the gay candidates for ordination whom it might directly affect and even beyond the celibate gay priests who would inevitably take it as a judgment on their own calling and years of service. In fact, the Catholic Church's moral...

THE WASHINGTON TIMES June 15, 2005 U.S. Catholic bishops will sidestep the issue of whether homosexual men should become priests at their semiannual meeting, which begins tomorrow, despite the Vatican's concern about the role of homosexuals in the church's massive sex-abuse scandal. In the latest edition of an 84-page document on priestly training, only one sentence deals with homosexuality. "With regard to the admission of candidates with same-sex experiences and/or inclinations, the guidelines provided by the Holy See must be followed," says the document "Program of Priestly Formation." The program is expected to be approved by the bishops in their...

Starting today, 290 of the nation's Catholic bishops will meet at the Capitol Hyatt for their yearly business meeting and to tie up loose ends on the massive sexual-abuse crisis that has shaken the U.S. Catholic Church to its core in the past two years. Although it's been less than a year since the church revealed that there were 10,667 cases of abuse c

An update concerning the long-rumored document on the admission of homosexuals to Catholic seminaries, being prepared under the aegis of the Congregation for Catholic Education. In various drafts, the idea of a document on this subject has been around for years. In April 2003, however, a special closed-door Vatican summit on pedophilia seemed to arrest its momentum. During that session, scientific experts on sexual abuse told Vatican officials that homosexuality does not "cause" abuse. They said it is a risk factor associated with clerical sexual abuse, but so are many other things - such as being ordained less than five...

Do you remember the now-infamous St. Sebastian’s Angels website for actively homosexual clerics? (See www.rcf.org.) Well, it appears there is a “sister” site. The following item is from noted Catholic author and apologist Patrick Madrid, from the Envoy Encore blog (http://www.envoymagazine.com/EnvoyEncore/): The cliques and networks and buddy-systems of actively homosexual Catholic priests are alive and well. … A concerned Catholic reader sent me a link to "Venerabilis," yet another website dedicated to gay priests. Its purpose, explained in English, French, and Italian, is to allow gay priests to anonymously contact one another with an aim toward sharing information and personal...

The Diocese Report has obtained a copy of a letter from a Vatican undersecretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of apostolic Life, regarding the ordination of an openly homosexual Dominican seminarian, Mr. Patrick Baikauskas in Illinois.

Gay Priests and Gay Marriage What the one issue has to do with the other. By Stanley Kurtz, from the June 3, 2002, issue of National Review he sex-abuse scandal currently plaguing the Catholic priesthood has already grown to the point where it poses a serious threat to the power, prestige, and credibility of the American Catholic Church. The sky, so to speak, is falling. An institution whose fundamental strength and continuity (whatever its many problems) could once be taken for granted is experiencing a genuine crisis. Yet, over and above its significance for the Catholic Church, the greatest lesson...

<p>ROME, Oct. 10 -- The Vatican is internally circulating draft proposals that would bar homosexuals from becoming priests, a policy long discussed within the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy but getting renewed attention in the wake of sex abuse scandals in the United States.</p> <p>No action to bar homosexuals from seminaries is likely anytime soon, a senior Vatican official said today. The official said the document, which originated in the Vatican department responsible for Roman Catholic education, is being passed around for comment from a variety of officials and experts. "It is being studied. We are far from formulating a policy," the official said.</p>

<p>Mike Brake, a spokesman for Keating, dismissed the editorial in the Pilot, saying Cardinal Bernard F. Law should pay more attention to protecting children and implementing the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People approved by Catholic bishops in June, and less attention to criticizing the governor.</p>

Unspoken Issue Created Atmosphere of Tension By Hanna Rosin Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, July 21, 2002; Page A01 Several things struck Andrew Krzmarzick during orientation week for his class of aspiring priests in the late summer of 1997: how brainy everyone seemed, how they weren't ostentatiously pious, and one other thing. Midway through a tour of the library at Theological College in Northeast Washington, he noticed another student "definitely checking me out." So he ditched the tour and asked the one friend he'd made so far: "Hey -- are we the only straight guys here or what?" For David...