A long-awaited Vatican document drew a sharp line against priestly ordination of homosexuals, but in the process raised a series of delicate questions for church leaders and seminary officials.
The nine-page instruction, prepared by the Congregation for Catholic Education, said the church cannot ordain men who are active homosexuals, who have "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies or who support the "gay culture." Those who have overcome "transitory" homosexual tendencies, however, could be ordained, it said.
The document was officially released by the Vatican Nov. 29 after years of preparation. Its full title was "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 Sacred Orders."
The instruction's bottom line was that homosexual men should not be accepted into seminaries or ordained to the priesthood.
The Vatican document was signed by Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the education congregation, which prepared the instruction for use by bishops, religious superiors and seminary rectors around the world.
The instruction, dated Nov. 4, was approved Aug. 31 by Pope Benedict XVI, but not in "forma specifica." That means the document carries the authority of the education congregation and does not have precedence over the existing Code of Canon Law, an informed Vatican source said.
In a letter accompanying the document, the Vatican made it clear that the instruction does not challenge the validity of previous ordinations of priests with homosexual tendencies, Vatican sources said.
The Vatican also communicated to bishops and seminary officials that homosexuals are not to be appointed as rectors or educators in seminaries.
"This is a logical consequence of the instruction, that those involved in formation of seminarians should have a personal situation in conformity with the norms," a Vatican official told Catholic News Service.
The document cited the church's teachings that homosexual acts are gravely sinful and that homosexual tendencies are "objectively disordered."
In the light of those teachings, it said, the church, while deeply respecting homosexuals, "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.'"
"One must in no way overlook the negative consequences that can derive from the ordination of persons with deep-seated homosexual tendencies," it said.
"Different, however, would be the case in which one were dealing with homosexual tendencies that were only the expression of a transitory problem --- for example, that of an adolescence not yet superseded," it said.
"Nevertheless, such tendencies must be clearly overcome at least three years before ordination to the diaconate," it said. Ordination as a deacon precedes priestly ordination by at least six months.
In recent weeks, some reports have suggested that the document would allow homosexual men to be ordained, as long as they had remained celibate for at least three years during seminary formation.
But the document does not say that; there is no discussion of "celibacy" of homosexual candidates. What it does say is that fleeting homosexual tendencies experienced in youth should not represent a bar to ordination --- as long as those tendencies are clearly overcome.
In other words, a candidate would have to mature out of a homosexual inclination well before ordination.
"This part of the text refers to someone who may have had an experience tied to the process of maturing during adolescence. It does not refer to someone who is homosexual and who has refrained from (sexual) acts in a three-year period," said an official of the education congregation, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"It is talking about a phase in which someone has uncertainty about his sexual orientation, and it says this uncertainty must be definitively overcome," the official said.
The wording of the text is significant. It presumes that homosexuality is not a permanent identity but a set of "tendencies" or an inclination that can, in fact, be overcome.
But the instruction makes no attempt to define the difference between "deep-seated" or "transitory" tendencies. Nor does it say what criteria would be used to determine whether a candidate had overcome such tendencies.
Further, the text does not spell out who should determine whether a candidate for the priesthood has homosexual tendencies. It does not discuss psychological testing of seminary applicants, another key and controversial issue at the Vatican.
In fact, in late 2002 the education congregation was concluding work on a separate document on psychological testing in seminaries. But that text disappeared from the radar, and congregation officials today refuse to comment on its status.
The instruction emphasized that the final judgment on ordination of candidates for the priesthood fell to bishops and to major superiors of religious orders. The bishop or major superior must arrive at a "morally certain judgment" on the candidate's qualities, it said.
"In the case of a serious doubt in this regard, he must not admit him to ordination," it said.
The document said the candidate himself also has a primary responsibility for his own formation. It would be "gravely dishonest" for a seminarian to hide his homosexuality in order to reach ordination, it said.
The text urged bishops, bishops' conferences and seminary officials to make sure that the norms are faithfully observed "for the good of the candidates themselves and to guarantee that the church always has suitable priests who are true shepherds according to the heart of Christ."
The new instruction does mention the seminarian's spiritual director and confessor as people who should dissuade a homosexual man from pursuing ordination. That presumes, as the document states, that a spiritual director would "make sure that (a candidate) does not present disturbances of a sexual nature, which are incompatible with the priesthood."
But according to canon law experts in Rome, that could raise potential issues regarding the relationship of confidentiality between the seminarian and his spiritual director.
According to Msgr. Gerard McKay, a member of the tribunal of the Roman Rota, a spiritual director could ask a seminarian about sexual problems, but he could not then use that information to have the seminarian removed.
The idea that the instruction contains "nothing new" is not really accurate. A 1961 Vatican document on religious order priests said homosexuals should be excluded from religious vows and ordination, but that was one line in a lengthy document.
The new text addresses exclusively the question of homosexuality. That bothered some people even inside the Vatican.
"They should have written a more general document on self-control or on chastity," said one bishop who advises the Vatican on doctrinal and other issues.
"This instruction says very valid things, but there are many temptations or instincts that need to be controlled before ordination," he said. "Instead, they have written an instruction that singles out homosexuals, which can create misunderstandings."
The bishop said it was clear the Vatican was not taking a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude on homosexuality. The document urges bishops and seminary officials to make sure the norms are applied, which underlines that the Vatican is serious about this, he said.
In explaining why homosexuals should not be ordained, the instruction refers to the teaching of the "Catechism of the Catholic Church," which describes homosexual acts as sinful and the homosexual inclination as "objectively disordered."
It follows, it said, that homosexuality is a bar to a priest's "affective maturity" and seriously impairs his ability to minister pastorally to the Catholic community.
Three years ago, in the first story published about the Vatican document, Vatican officials described its content in much the same terms to Catholic News Service. Why did it take so long for the document to appear?
"The core of the document never changed, even as the text evolved," the education congregation official said. "Initial drafts took a wider view, saying much more about homosexuality in general. But after the complexity of the question was seen, it was decided to stick to the essential question of ordination."
Although described by some media reports as Pope Benedict XVI's answer to clerical sex abuse, the decision to write the instruction predates the eruption of the sex abuse scandal and the pope's election.
Sources said the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith --- then headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the current pope --- suggested in 1996 that the education congregation prepare such a document. A first draft was completed in 1998, a second draft in 2002 and the final version this year.
While the clerical sex abuse scandal is not mentioned explicitly in the instruction, the text makes two possible allusions to it: when it says the question of homosexuality is made more urgent by the "current situation," and when it warns of not underestimating the "negative consequences" of ordaining homosexuals.
In private conversations, several Vatican officials have said it was important not to scapegoat homosexuals for priestly sex abuse. At the same time, others point out that many clerical sex abuse victims have been teenage boys.
Hosting a meeting of outside medical and psychiatric experts in 2004, Vatican officials asked them about homosexuality and ordination. Some felt homosexuality was not a cause of abuse but might be considered a risk factor; others said it would be unrealistic to expect homosexual seminarians to identify themselves as such. A PDF version of the new Vatican instruction on homosexuals and the priesthood is available on the Web site of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: http://www.usccb.org/instruction.pdf.
---CNS |