UNITED STATES
Boston Herald
By Marie Szaniszlo
Saturday, October 8, 2005
A pending Vatican ruling stops short of an outright ban on homosexuals in the priesthood, by allowing gay men who have been celibate for at least three years to be admitted to a seminary, a senior Vatican official said yesterday.
But the ruling stipulates that gay seminarians not take part in ``gay culture,'' such as attending gay-pride rallies, and that their sexual orientation must not make studying in an all-male environment a risk, said the senior official, who requested anonymity.
The ruling has yet to be released, even though Pope Benedict XVI approved the document over the summer, the Italian weekly Panorama reported.
Dean Hoge, a Catholic University of America sociologist who studies the priesthood, said the document ``is not too far from present policy,'' and ``an outright ban is not possible. There is no way of enforcing it.''