c. 2005 Religion News Service
VATICAN CITY _ Gay priests are not to lead or teach at Catholic seminaries even though their ordination is valid, according to a newly disclosed cover letter accompanying Vatican guidelines on homosexuality.
As U.S. bishops wonder how much discretion they have in interpreting and implementing the guidelines, released Tuesday (Nov. 29), the cover letter appears to communicate that the Vatican expects concrete steps to be taken.
The cover letter was not made public with the guidelines, called an Instruction, which bar men with “deep-seated” homosexuality from becoming priests in the future. Catholic News Service, the official news agency of the U.S. Bishops’ Conference, published excerpts of the cover letter Wednesday.
Since it is separate from the Instruction itself, the cover letter’s importance is open to interpretation. Nonetheless, it appears to address the Vatican’s view of current gay priests, as opposed to those seeking the priesthood, which is the focus of the Instruction.
Estimates of the percentage of gay priests vary widely, from 10 percent to more than 50 percent.
“Because of the particular responsibility of those charged with the formation of future priests,” the cover letter states, priests with deep-seated homosexuality “are not to be appointed as rectors or educators in seminaries.”
CNS said the Congregation for Catholic Education, which issued the Instruction, sent the cover letter to bishops in early November along with a copy of the document.
The congregation declined to comment on the report.
Although the letter seeks to limit the influence of gay priests in seminary life, it reaffirmed the validity of their ordination.
The Instruction “does not call into question the validity of the ordination and the situation of priests who, in fact, have been ordained with homosexual tendencies,” the letter reportedly states.
The letter also called upon bishops to ensure that the Instruction on priestly candidates is “faithfully observed” in their dioceses, the report said.
Since the Instruction’s release, U.S. bishops have expressed mixed interpretations over whether the document rules out the ordination of gay celibate men.
Influential U.S. bishops, including Bishop William Skylstad, president of the U.S. Bishops’ Conference, have indicated that the Instruction does not bar a celibate gay candidate from the priesthood as long as homosexuality remains secondary to his personality and his ministry.
According to the document, gay men who are sexually active, espouse “gay culture” and exhibit “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” cannot become Catholic priests.
Critics charge that such criteria are toothless for screening the sexual orientation of priestly candidates and do not compel local church officials to alter their current policies.
But the Vatican letter offers an example of concrete measures bishops are expected to take to keep gay men out of the priesthood.
Observers cautioned that the cover letter does not carry the same weight as the document itself.
The letter “is not part of the Instruction, so that part of it would not be binding,” said the Rev. Mark Francis, superior general of the Clerics of St. Viator, a Rome-based religious order of priests.
Francis said the letter’s restriction on gay priests becoming seminary rectors and instructors was “not an unreasonable interpretation of what the (Instruction) says, but it’s still an interpretation.”
According to CNS, the letter also gave background on the creation of the Instruction. Numerous Vatican departments reviewed the document, including the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which ordered the Instruction’s preparation in 1996.
MO/PH END RNS
