Vatican Instruction on Priestly Formation

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Here is an America Magazine Editorial about the recent Vatican document. You can vote on whether you agree with the article at their webpage.

americamagazine.org/editorial.cfm?articleTypeID=3&textID=4583&issueID=558

Editorial: The Vatican Instruction on Priestly Formation
There has been a notably wide variety of interpretations from Catholic leaders of the Vatican instruction, published on Nov. 29, concerning the admission of gay men to orders. It is difficult, therefore, to determine exactly what effect it will have on future applicants to seminaries and religious orders. Some Catholic leaders, like Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., former master general of the Dominicans, have concluded that the document cannot be taken as a ban on gay men in the priesthood, since, in his words, “there are many excellent priests who are gay.” Others, like Bishop William S. Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the answer lies less in a man’s orientation and more “in the lives of those men who, with God’s grace, have truly been dedicated priests, seeking each day not to be served but to serve their people, faithfully representing in word and example the teaching of the Church in its fullness.” Still others, like Bishop John D’Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., view the document as an outright ban. “t does bar anyone whose sexual orientation is towards one’s own sex and it’s permanent,” he said to The Washington Post.
 
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“So should anything [be rejected] that conflates homosexuality with pedophilia or ephebophilia. The connection between them is unsupported by any credible empirical evidence …”

There may be no “connection” between a particular young male driver and crashing cars, but the insurance industry’s actuarial stats certainly assess more risk to them in terms of the premiums one pays. How about the 80% male on male abuse cited in the bishops’ own study? Are they trying to insinuate that the clergy in question were primarily heterosexuals preying on young males?

“Some have predicted that the instruction will discourage gay men from applying to seminaries and religious orders in the future,”

Right. According to the Cardinal who wrote it who must know the intent, that is indeed one of its purposes:

“In regard to people who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies, we are profoundly convinced that it is an obstacle for a correct relationship with men and women, with negative consequences for the Church’s pastoral development.”

…transitory tendencies …must have disappeared three years before diaconal ordination," specified the cardinal. "

catholic.net/global_catholic_news/template_news.phtml?channel_id=2&news_id=80818
 
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