Vatican Revises Seminary Requirements, Says Gay Men Can Now Become Priests, With One Caveat?
The Vatican has relaxed rules that previously barred men with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” from entering the priesthood, with a new document from the Bishops Conference of Italy allowing gay men to pursue and enter seminary so long as they commit to being celibate, according to Reuters and other news outlets, who write:
The new guidelines, posted without fanfare on the website of the Italian Bishops’ conference on Thursday, say seminary directors should consider a priestly candidate’s sexual preferences, but only as one aspect of their personality.
“When referring to homosexual tendencies in the formation process, it is also appropriate not to reduce the discernment to this aspect alone, but … to understand its meaning within the whole framework of the young person’s personality,” state the guidelines.
Before this new change, discernment for suitability of entering the priesthood was always reduced to this one aspect, being a deal breaker. In 2018, Francis told Italian bishops to carefully vet anyone they suspected of being a homosexual, erring on the side of caution if they weren’t sure, and refusing admittance. Likewise, a decade earlier, Pope Benedict allowed former gay men to enter the seminary so long as they’d overcome their gay propensities for three years, but firmly insisted that men with deep-seated” homosexual inclinations should be barred.
Now, the argument seems to be that gay men who commit to celibacy may be considered, rather than instantly be dismissed.
Prominent gay-affirming Roman Catholic priest James Martin was very pleased by the document and the shift from the Vatican, writing on X:
This is the first time I’ve seen in a Vatican-approved document the suggestion that discernment about whether a gay man may enter the seminary cannot simply be determined by his sexual orientation. My reading of this–and it is only my reading–is that if a gay man is able to lead a healthy chaste and celibate life, he may be considered for admission to the seminary. So, as I see it, this is something of a step forward.
While this new tweaking to Roman Catholic seminary requirements has been widely reported, the news site Catholic Culture is claiming that it isn’t so. In an article titled ‘Italian prelate, bishops’ newspaper deny media reports on admission of gay men to seminaries,’ they write:
The president of the Italian bishops’ Episcopal Commission for the Clergy and Consecrated Life and the Italian bishops’ newspaper have denied media reports that newly approved norms for the formation of Italian seminarians allow for the admission of gay men who are celibate to seminaries.
The “norms on the non-admission of homosexual persons to the priesthood are not changing,” according to an article in Avvenire. This clarification “became necessary after a partial and non-contextualized reading by some press organs of paragraph 44 of the document that deals precisely with the theme of homosexuality.”
The assertion that the paragraph allows for the admission of gay men to seminaries “is not a correct reading, because the paragraph from the beginning reiterates the norms of the magisterium,” said Bishop Stefano Manetti of Fiesole, the president of the Italian bishops’ Episcopal Commission for the Clergy and Consecrated Life.
About Author
How is this new? The Catholic seminaries have been requiring seminarians to have sex with their supervisors to even graduate for decades. Men who dropped out of seminary because of this have said so.