Spotlighting News
Bishop William S. Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Bishop John M. D'Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind. Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington. Chester Gillis, professor and chairman of the theology department at Georgetown University. Peter Tatchell, member of OutRage!, gay rights group.
They all have something in common, their view on the directive given by the Vatican, currently headed by Pope Benedict XVI, concerning recommended Catholic attitude toward homosexuality within church ranks.
Bishop William S. Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, considers that according to the new Vatican directive, the first major policy statement since Pope Benedict XVI became Pope, men that are attracted to the same sex can be ordained as priests as long as they control their impulses and are not "consumed by" them. Below is a fragment of the interview he gave to The Washington Post:
"I think one of the telling sentences in the document is the phrase that the candidate's entire life of sacred ministry must be 'animated by a gift of his whole person to the church and by an authentic pastoral charity. If that becomes paramount in his ministry, even though he might have a homosexual orientation, then he can minister and he can minister celibately and chastely.'"