UNITED STATES
Boston Globe
By Charles A. Radin and Anand Vaishnav, Globe Staff | September 24, 2005
With Pope Benedict XVI reportedly on the verge of decreeing that homosexuals may not enroll in Catholic seminaries, Catholics and scholars of Catholicism are deeply divided on whether men who are gay should be able to serve as priests.
Supporters of banning gays from seminaries say the step is needed because priests who are gay or accepting of gay lifestyles are unsuited to teach church doctrine that specifies lifelong, monogamous, heterosexual marriage as the only proper context for sexual activity.
Critics of the effort say it is an ill-conceived reaction to the child sexual-abuse scandal that in recent years has rocked the Catholic clergy, particularly in New England.
Church officials and clergy declined to comment on The New York Times report last week that the pope will soon issue a ban on gay men becoming priests, but some were willing to discuss the subject of gays' suitability for the priesthood.
''If a person has been sexually active or is espousing a homosexual lifestyle as acceptable, that person is not suitable to be a priest," said Monsignor Francis J. Maniscalco, spokesman for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, because such ideas ''are opposed to what the Catholic Church teaches about sexual activity being confined to a lifelong, heterosexual, monogamous marriage.