VATICAN CITY
USA Today
By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY
A leaked version of an upcoming Vatican document says men with a homosexual orientation should be denied training for the Roman Catholic priesthood unless they can prove they've been celibate for at least three years and promise to teach Catholic doctrine that gay sex is always wrong.
Seminaries should refuse admission to sexually active gay men or those who "support so-called gay culture," according to a version of the document published Tuesday by the Italian Catholic news service Adista. The Associated Press says an official for the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education authenticated the version scheduled for release next Tuesday.
The document, which has been in the works since 1974, is intended to guide bishops and seminary directors on choosing, training and ordaining priests. Pope Benedict XVI signed off on it in August, according to the AP, but the document doesn't have the standing of an infallible teaching.
The church teaches that people with a homosexual orientation deserve love and respect but that gay sex is "intrinsically disordered."