UNITED STATES
Albany Times Union
First published: Friday, October 14, 2005
Andrew Greeley
The mystery of the Vatican document on the ordination of homosexuals gets, if one might borrow from Alice in Wonderland, curiouser and curiouser.
Two weeks ago, it was reported that someone in the Vatican had briefed American reporters with the information that the document would say that not even 10 years of celibacy would justify the ordination of a man with a homosexual orientation.
Now word appears in an Associated Press report and in the weekly column of John Allen of theAbuse Tracker that another Vatican briefing revealed that three years of celibacy is sufficient grounds for keeping a homosexual in the seminary -- so long as he is not part of a gay subculture and would not be a threat in an all-male environment. Allen also reports that these conditions were published in the respected Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. He adds that he was told by a Vatican official "whether or not these criteria exclude a particular candidate is a judgment that must be made in the context of individual spiritual direction, rather than by applying a rigid litmus test.