Gay men can now train to become priests in the Catholic Church. That shows a new adjustment to the guidelines for these studies, which was published on Thursday by the Italian bishops’ conference – a governing body within the Catholic Church. The Vatican has approved this adjustment.
As long as men abstain from sex and are not followers of “the so-called gay culture”, they should not be excluded on the basis of their sexual orientation, the guidelines state. “While the Church has deep respect for the individuals in question, those who practice homosexuality, demonstrate deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support so-called gay culture cannot be admitted to the seminary.”
Under the new guidelines, which refer to “persons with homosexual inclinations,” sexual orientation should be considered only one aspect of a person’s identity by seminary directors. So the men’s orientation is taken into account in the application, but it is important to “understand its significance within the whole context of the young person’s personality.”
The current Pope Francis is known for being relatively tolerant when it comes to LGBTI+ topics. For example, in December 2023 he officially approved the blessing of gay couples by priests. This blessing did not mean approval of same-sex marriage itself. Last year, the Pope was in the news because of homophobic statements he made in a private meeting. When asked whether gay men should be allowed to become priests, he reportedly said that there are already too many “frociaggine” in the Roman Catholic Church. This can be translated to ‘fag behavior’ or ‘fag gang’.
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In 2019 spoke NRC with the openly gay ex-priest Pierre Valkering, at the time he was suspended after publishing a book in which he wrote about his visits to darkrooms and gay saunas.