VATICAN CITY: Vatican gets tough on homosexual would-be priests in first big ruling under Pope Benedict XVI

Record ID: 335609

  • Title: VATICAN CITY: Vatican gets tough on homosexual would-be priests in first big ruling under Pope Benedict XVI
  • Date: 29th November 2005
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) REUTERS VATICAN JOURNALIST PHILIP PULLELLA, SAYING: "There has been a lot of criticism even from within the Church. There have been some very high ranking people and some very well known scholars within the Church who are saying that the Church has no right to question God's calling to a man. They say that if God calls a man to the priesthood it doesn
  • Embargoed: 14th December 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA16AN1BPAIRQR664X8E3CISTHC
  • Story Text: The Vatican document which has sparked controversy
    because it bars homosexuals from entering the Roman
    Catholic priesthood was finally released on Tuesday
    (November 29) -- after being widely leaked in the media --
    in the first major ruling of Pope Benedict's reign.
    The short document, which takes a strict line on the
    place of gays in the clergy, has already been praised by
    conservatives, condemned by liberals and set off heated
    debate well beyond the Church.
    Confronting an issue that has divided the faithful
    worldwide, it says practising homosexuals should be barred
    from
    entering the priesthood along with men with "deep-seated"
    homosexual tendencies and those who support gay culture.
    In one of its most controversial passages, the document
    says only men who had clearly overcome homosexual
    tendencies for at least three years should be admitted to
    the priesthood. Father Jarek Cielecki, a journalist as well as a
    priest, said on Tuesday: "For me, this document raises a
    big question: why is homosexuality treated as a limited
    period of a life, as something that can go away after three
    years, or a few years? I think somebody who is homosexual
    stays homosexual. It's a human tendency."
    Gay groups have said the Church is using homosexuals as
    scapegoats for its sexual abuse scandals.
    Conservative Catholics have welcomed the document,
    describing it as an important step in the reform of the
    priesthood, particularly in the United States, where they
    say some seminaries had become venues for a thriving
    subculture.
    Many inside and outside the Church have said the
    document risks alienating men who would be good priests and
    would be able to honour their vow of celibacy.
    The Vatican correspondent for German radio, Gregor
    Hoppe, said: "...it will certainly cause scandal because
    human rights groups and gay groups, pressure groups, have
    protested and to my mind justly so because you know it
    makes a discrimination where not even the difference can be
    of importance. I mean everybody is asked to live a chaste
    life, live in chastity and have no sex at all -- and what
    kind of sex you are not having cannot be a matter of
    importance to the Church I think."
    Reuters Vatican journalist Philip Pullella, said:
    "There has been a lot of criticism even from within the
    Church. There have been some very high ranking people and
    some very well known scholars within the Church who are
    saying that the Church has no right to question God's
    calling to a man. They say that if God calls a man to the
    priesthood it doesn't matter wether he is homosexual or
    whether heterosexual as long as that person remains
    celibate."
    The document reinforces standing policy that many in
    the Church believe has not been properly enforced. Its
    urgency has
    been highlighted by the 2002 sexual abuse scandal in the
    United States, which involved mostly abuse of teenage boys
    by priests.
    It does not affect those men who are already priests,
    but only those entering seminaries to prepare for the
    priesthood.
    It restates long-standing Church teaching that
    "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies are "objectively
    disordered" and that
    homosexual acts are grave sins.
    It says heads of seminaries have a serious duty to
    ensure that candidates for the priesthood do not "present
    disturbances of a sexual nature which are incompatible with
    the priesthood".
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