CALIFORNIA
Bay Area Reporter
In contrast with LGBT Catholic and civil rights groups, gay and straight Bay Area theologians and ministers are lending a generous interpretation and calm response to a new Vatican instruction that seeks to ban gays from becoming priests.
Local Catholic clergy said the instruction mostly reiterates what the community already knows about priest criteria, and that some worst case scenarios and panic have resulted from reporters mistranslating the Italian document.
The instruction, approved by Pope Benedict XVI in August and signed by the Catholic Education Congregation Prefect Zenon Grocholewski on November 4, appeared on a Roman progressive Catholic Web site, headlined, "Ethical Cleansing" on Tuesday November 22. It was formally published by the Vatican Tuesday, November 29.
The Vatican said Tuesday that there would be no crackdown on gay priests, according to the Associated Press.