ARIZONA
Arizona Daily Star
By Stephanie Innes
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.30.2005
Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas on Tuesday praised a Vatican document that bars gay men with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" from entering the priesthood as a succinct summary of church teaching on homosexuality.
But he added that it's unclear whether timing of the document was a response to the increasingly high-profile debate over gay rights, or to the sexual-abuse crisis of priests abusing children in the United States, or a response to something else. The document applies to Catholics worldwide, not just those in the United States.
"It's worded very abstractly. But this is a significant issue today in the culture and in some ways it's time for the church to articulate its position," said Kicanas, chairman of the communications committee for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and former rector of Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Ill..