Ordination of Homosexuals

[CalledtoGod]

Can someone who has homosexual tendencies but suppresses them be ordained as a priest?

Please respond someone, this is very urgent to me.

:imsorry::imsorry:

 

[trevor1055]

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops states in paragraph 58 of the Program for Priestly Formation as follows: “With regard to the admission of candidates with same-sex experiences
and/or inclinations, the guidelines provided by the Holy See must be followed.”

I believe that the Holy See does not allow such ordination, but I don’t recall the document off-hand. I recall that Fr. Vincent Serpa discussed this either in Ask an Apologist or maybe one of the radio shows. That was the source for my info on this topic.

 

[PaulfromIowa]

“”[the Church] “cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’”

vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20051104_istruzione_en.html

 

[runningdude]

The church wants men who can fully express themselves. Suppressing homosexual attraction would distract him from his priestly duties. I believe that dioceses would decline to sponsor such individuals to enter the seminary. I am sorry if this applies to you.

It is important to know that God does not call us to do the impossible. If the church declines someone for the priesthood, then that person does not have a vocation to be ordained. He is not letting God down - God has other plans for him.

The person to speak to is the vocation’s director for your diocese. He is in charge of recruiting individuals, and helping them discern God’s plan for them. He will be better able to answer you questions than we can. Be honest with him!

 

[KendraDZ1902]

The church wants men who can fully express themselves. Suppressing homosexual attraction would distract him from his priestly duties. I believe that dioceses would decline to sponsor such individuals to enter the seminary. I am sorry if this applies to you.

It is important to know that God does not call us to do the impossible. If the church declines someone for the priesthood, then that person does not have a vocation to be ordained. He is not letting God down - God has other plans for him.

The person to speak to is the vocation’s director for your diocese. He is in charge of recruiting individuals, and helping them discern God’s plan for them. He will be better able to answer you questions than we can. Be honest with him!

Wouldn’t suppressing heterosexual attraction distract the priest from his duties? Do males entering into the seminary have to say that he has never found anyone attractive, women or man? Please don’t think I am trying to start an argument. I honestly don’t understand. I could understand if the guy has been openly gay and paraded his boyfriend around, but would they tell Johnny that he couldn’t join the seminary if a year ago he took Suzie on a few dates?

 

[josh987654321]

Can someone who has homosexual tendencies but suppresses them be ordained as a priest?

Please respond someone, this is very urgent to me.

:imsorry::imsorry:

They would have to live a chaste/celibate life regardless if they were homosexual or heterosexual. So why would it matter?

“”[the Church] “cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’”

vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20051104_istruzione_en.html

The church wants men who can fully express themselves. **Suppressing homosexual attraction **would distract him from his priestly duties. I believe that dioceses would decline to sponsor such individuals to enter the seminary. I am sorry if this applies to you.

What about suppressing heterosexual attraction? It would be the same thing.

The person to speak to is the vocation’s director for your diocese. He is in charge of recruiting individuals, and helping them discern God’s plan for them. He will be better able to answer your questions than we can. Be honest with him!

 

[CalledtoGod]

So someone who has homosexual tendencies as a young man but doesn’t do any of that nasty thing nor supports that will never be able to be ordained…There goes my entire future…:bighanky:

 

[josh987654321]

So someone who has homosexual tendencies as a young man but doesn’t do any of that nasty thing nor supports that will never be able to be ordained…There goes my entire future…:bighanky:

No, thats not true at all.

Why would it make a difference if you are homosexual or heterosexual? sexuality has nothing to do with being ordained, to be ordained means that you must forsake your sexuality for God.

Thank you for reading
Josh

 

[sw85]

It depends on what you mean by “can.” Homosexual tendencies are not to my knowledge a canonical impediment to the sacrament of holy orders, although concealing something in bad faith from the bishop might be.

Yes, the Vatican firmly prohibits the ordination of men with homosexual impulses. That said, [edited] I am sure that the degree of enforcement varies from diocese to diocese and from order to order. So, “can” it happen, yes.

The important thing to bear in mind is that, when it does happen, it is contrary to the will of the Church and so is probably grave matter.

 

[KendraDZ1902]

So someone who has homosexual tendencies as a young man but doesn’t do any of that nasty thing nor supports that will never be able to be ordained…There goes my entire future…:bighanky:

I think you should talk to your priest about this.I’m sure if he doesn’t know the answer he can point you in the right direction. I wouldn’t think my dreams are crushed just because someone on an internet forum told me I couldn’t do it. Cheer up, bud!

 

[CalledtoGod]

I’m getting mixed responses…Let me try to explain this better…

At this point in time, I am a young teenager, for a while I have…Had sexual attraction to men…I don’t lust over them or “date” anyone of the same sex as me.I do NOT support homosexual “marriage” nor anything like that…

Would I or would I not be able to go through seminary and receive Holy Orders?

Can this just be a phase through which I am going through?

Would that “therapy” for homosexuals to turn straight be an option?

 

[Havard]

That said, I am aware of at least one religious order (the US Jesuits) that have stated their intention to disobey this directive

Where did you hear this?

 

[josh987654321]

I’m getting mixed responses…Let me try to explain this better…

At this point in time, I am a young teenager, for a while I have…Had sexual attraction to men…I don’t lust over them or “date” anyone of the same sex as me.I do NOT support homosexual “marriage” nor anything like that…

Would I or would I not be able to go through seminary and receive Holy Orders?

Can this just be a phase through which I am going through?

Would that “therapy” for homosexuals to turn straight be an option?

If you could or you couldn’t, It wouldn’t have anything to do with being homosexual, because if that were the case than heterosexuals would also be unable to be ordained, in both cases sexuality must be forsaken for God. It would only be if you found it difficult or were unable to forsake your sexual desires. In which case would be exactly the same for a heterosexual considering it.

Thank you for reading
Josh

 

[CalledtoGod]

Thank you, Josh.

 

[josh987654321]

Thank you, Josh.

No worries.

As a homosexual you are called to a life of chastity which is exactly the same as me being an unmarried heterosexual. The only occassion that sexuality is okay to act on is in a heterosexual marriage towards procreation and as Jesus says about celibacy * “All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given: 12 For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it.” *

Just remember, if you are not called to married life (and as a homosexual you are not called to married life), it doesn’t neccessarly mean you are called to the priesthood, but we are all called to be saints. To be faithful witnesses to the gospel.

However if you feel called to the priesthood, than don’t give up.

Thank you for reading
Josh

 

[Elizium23]

While runningdude was off the mark in his claims, josh987654321 is also incorrect in saying that it doesn’t matter. The Vatican has released clear directives regarding homosexual persons discerning vocations.

Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders

So as you can see, homosexual tendencies and the lifestyle are treated differently from heterosexual activity in candidates for vocations, because there is a fundamental difference. Homosexuality is intrinsically disordered. A man dating a man is entertaining a lie, even if they are chaste; dating is something which is supposed to lead to marriage, and there can be no marriage between two men. A man dating a woman is taking a step toward marriage. Even if they are unchaste and commit mortal sins in their relationship, these desires and acts are not intrinsically disordered but taken out of the context of marriage, cannot be condoned.

Part of the Church’s concern is for the well-being of the whole community of brothers or priests. We have seen in the past that the homosexual lifestyle infected seminaries and religious houses. Homosexual activity went on, quietly or openly, and even heterosexual men felt pressure to join in, or felt ridiculed that they would not. The directives are aimed at screening out people who would re-introduce this kind of activity, a real problem of sexual harrassment.

Men in the priesthood and religious life live in close quarters with each other and there are common areas which afford little or no privacy. So people with homosexual tendencies must be especially good at containing themselves if they are to live this way. Seminaries are not co-ed, nor are the religious houses or most rectories; heterosexual men will not usually have the problem of compromising situations with members of the opposite sex.

So while any man with deep-seated problems with sexual continence may be a bad risk for a vocation, I hope you can see why homosexuality is different, and has merited special consideration by the Vatican. Heterosexuality is well-understood over thousands of years, but the nature of homosexuality as something that used to be hidden and secret, but is now wildly popular and gaining in acceptance, is still being studied and adapted to.

 

[josh987654321]

While runningdude was off the mark in his claims, josh987654321 is also incorrect in saying that it doesn’t matter. The Vatican has released clear directives regarding homosexual persons discerning vocations.

Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders

So as you can see, homosexual tendencies and the lifestyle are treated differently from heterosexual activity in candidates for vocations, because there is a fundamental difference. Homosexuality is intrinsically disordered. A man dating a man is entertaining a lie, even if they are chaste; dating is something which is supposed to lead to marriage, and there can be no marriage between two men. A man dating a woman is taking a step toward marriage. Even if they are unchaste and commit mortal sins in their relationship, these desires and acts are not intrinsically disordered but taken out of the context of marriage, cannot be condoned.

Part of the Church’s concern is for the well-being of the whole community of brothers or priests. We have seen in the past that the homosexual lifestyle infected seminaries and religious houses. Homosexual activity went on, quietly or openly, and even heterosexual men felt pressure to join in, or felt ridiculed that they would not. The directives are aimed at screening out people who would re-introduce this kind of activity, a real problem of sexual harrassment.

Men in the priesthood and religious life live in close quarters with each other and there are common areas which afford little or no privacy. So people with homosexual tendencies must be especially good at containing themselves if they are to live this way. Seminaries are not co-ed, nor are the religious houses or most rectories; heterosexual men will not usually have the problem of compromising situations with members of the opposite sex.

So while any man with deep-seated problems with sexual continence may be a bad risk for a vocation, I hope you can see why homosexuality is different, and has merited special consideration by the Vatican. Heterosexuality is well-understood over thousands of years, but the nature of homosexuality as something that used to be hidden and secret, but is now wildly popular and gaining in acceptance, is still being studied and adapted to.

Thank you Elizium. My apologies. I didn’t think about the different temptations that homosexuals would be confronted with in seminaries and religious houses.

.

But remember ‘CalledtoGod’ if you are not called to married life (and as a homosexual it means that you are not called to married life), it doesn’t neccessarly mean you are called to the priesthood, but we are all called to be saints. To be faithful witnesses to the gospel. If you feel called to the priesthood, than don’t give up, because Elizium isn’t saying that it is out of the question, but he is saying that there are other considerations that they must take into account that would probably make it slightly harder, but it certainly doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

Thank you for reading
Josh

 

[stephe1987]

I heard on Catholic radio (can’t remember the date or which program it was) that there are a few individuals in seminary right now who have same-sex attraction. But they have not and never will act on these feelings. And they fully support church teaching. And they are being carefully watched to make sure things are okay and they aren’t planning something against the Church.

 

[MaryT777]

I’m getting mixed responses…Let me try to explain this better…

At this point in time, I am a young teenager, for a while I have…Had sexual attraction to men…I don’t lust over them or “date” anyone of the same sex as me.I do NOT support homosexual “marriage” nor anything like that…

Would I or would I not be able to go through seminary and receive Holy Orders?

Can this just be a phase through which I am going through?

Would that “therapy” for homosexuals to turn straight be an option?

You need to speak to a priest.

 

[xixxvmcm85]

“”[the Church] “cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’”

vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20051104_istruzione_en.html

Can somebody define “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” for us? Does this mean full blown gay men versus bisexual men? Does it mean homosexuals who have not recently been continent? Does it mean homosexuals who have at any point in their lives not been continent?

It seems to me that the OP neither practices homosexuality nor supports the so-called ‘gay culture’, so until we know what the Vatican means by this phrase “present deep-seated homosexual tendencies”, I don’t know that anyone could offer him a black and white answer.