The Vatican has approved new guidelines from Italian bishops that allow gay men to enter seminaries as long as they abstain from sex, in an unexpected adjustment to how the global Catholic Church considers potential future priests.
While the Vatican has not explicitly banned gay men from entering the priesthood in the past, a previous instruction from 2016 said that seminaries cannot admit men who have “deeply ingrained homosexual tendencies.”
The new guidelines, published without warning on the Italian Bishops’ Conference website on Thursday, say seminary directors must consider a priest candidate’s sexual preferences, but only as one aspect of his personality.
“When referring to homosexual tendencies in the formation process, it is also opportune not to reduce discernment just to this aspect, but to understand its meaning within the entire framework of the young person’s personality”, state the guidelines.
Italian bishops said they approved the document in November. The text is accompanied by a note from the Vatican clergy office confirming that the directives are valid for a trial period of three years.
Pope Francis, leader of the Catholic Church since 2013, has been credited with taking a more welcoming approach toward the LGBTQ community and has allowed priests to bless same-sex couples on a case-by-case basis.
But the admission of gay men to the priesthood remains a taboo subject. Priests who are gay often express fear of discussing their sexuality.
Francis approved the 2016 Vatican instruction, which was largely an update of an earlier document issued by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.
The pope has called for careful evaluation of would-be seminarians and in the past has strongly warned priests who have sexual relations to abandon the priesthood.
Francis also reportedly used a derogatory word about gays when discussing homosexuality at seminaries in a closed-door meeting last year, for which the Vatican issued a rare apology on the pope’s behalf.
This content was originally published in Vatican approves guidelines allowing gay men to become priests on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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