ROME
The Day
By TRACY WILKINSON
& MARIA DE CRISTOFARO
& LOS ANGELES TIMES
Published on 11/23/2005
Rome— Men who have “deep-rooted homosexual tendencies” or who sustain a “gay culture” may not be trained to become Roman Catholic priests, the Vatican says in a new document posted Tuesday on a Catholic news Web site.
However, the church says, if a man had “transitory” homosexual tendencies that have been “overcome” for at least three years, he may be admitted to a seminary, the school that trains priests.
The document was quickly criticized by some gay rights sympathizers, who say the church does not understand homosexuality.
The new instructions are basically a reaffirmation of the church's long-standing ban on ordaining active gays into the priesthood. They repeat a 1961 condemnation of homosexual acts but provide more specific guidelines that were ordered partly in response to the sexual abuse scandal plaguing the church.