Report: Pope Francis affirms Church practice against admitting gay men to seminary

[_Abyssinia]

Vatican City, May 24, 2018 / 11:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a closed-door speech to Italian bishops on Monday, Pope Francis reportedly spoke about the number and quality of seminary candidates, including concerns about their sexual orientation.
At the start of his May 21 audience with Italian bishops, Pope Francis voiced three areas of concern for the Church in Italy, the first of which was the lack of vocations.

Francis’ brief remarks on his concerns, which also touched on evangelical poverty and transparency and the incorporation of Italian dioceses, were televised; however, his discussion with the bishops afterward was not.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/...e-against-admitting-gay-men-to-seminary-65273

 

[tseleehw]

Thanks for posting; Father Z. had a post on this on his blog yesterday as well. The one quote from Pope Francis in the section he translated that people will be the most interested in:

He reportedly touched on the topic of homosexuality, particularly when it comes to individuals with “deep-seated tendencies” or who practice “homosexual acts”, yet who want to enter the seminary. In these cases, “if you have even the slightest doubt it’s better not to let them enter,” Francis said, because these acts or deep-seated tendencies can lead to scandals and can compromise the life of the seminary, as well as the man himself and his future priesthood.

Also an interesting note about what he wrote in a letter to the Chilean bishops about the abuse scandal there:

Though Pope Francis has not addressed the topic publicly, he alluded to problems of homosexuality in seminary formation during a recent meeting with Chilean bishops. In a letter written to the bishops which was leaked to Chilean media, the pope issued a sharp correction of his brother prelates for a systematic cover-up of clerical abuse in the country. One footnote in the letter noted how abuses were not limited to just one person or group, but was rather the result of a fractured seminary process. In the case of many abusers in Chile, Francis noted how problems had been detected while they were in seminary or the novitiate, but rather than expelling these individuals, some bishops or superiors “sent priests suspected of active homosexuality to these educational institutions.”

We’ll see if this story gets picked up by the secular media (answer: probably not).

 

[abucs]

I am really glad to hear this. It is one of the only attempts I have seen from the church to try and rationalise where the child abuses came from. I think identifying problems in the seminary formation is a great start to this process.