WASHINGTON (DC)
U.S. Newswire
WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Spokane Bishop William S. Skylstad, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, called the Instruction of the Holy See on the admission of men with deeply-rooted homosexual tendencies to seminaries and to Holy Orders "a timely document."
The document, titled "Instruction on the Criteria for Vocational Discernment with Regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in View of Their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders," is signed by Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, and was issued on November 29.
In his statement on the release of the Instruction, Bishop Skylstad said, "We live in an era when the issue of sexual orientation is much discussed." He went on to say that the Church affirms "the dignity of all human beings and the respect that should be shown all people irrespective of sexual orientation," while also teaching that "God has given this gift (of sexuality) to humanity to bring about a loving relationship between a man and a woman in the lifelong union of a marriage open to the creation of new life."
Bishop Skylstad said that, in the Instruction, "the Congregation for Catholic Education is exercising a Christian realism about what is expected in candidates for the priesthood. This realism understands the challenges of our time."