Sunday, October 09, 2005

That "gays in the seminary" story again

As is being widely reported, the much-expected document from Rome on whether a man's sexual orientation will be a bar to admission to the seminary appears not to be what many hoped.

According to John Allen, who writes for the National Catholic Reporter (can any good thing come from the NCR? John Allen may be it), the document will not absolutely bar any and all same-sex-attracted men from the seminary. Rather, it will call for barring those who:

* have not demonstrated a capacity to live celibate lives for at least three years;
* are part of a "gay culture," for example, attending gay pride rallies (a point, the official said, which applies both to professors at seminaries as well as students);
* have a homosexual orientation sufficiently "strong, permanent and univocal" as to make an all-male environment a risk.

Of course, given that this is at best third-hand, given that I haven't seen the document, neither has John Allen, and for all we know, neither has the "senior Vatican official" who is his source. But since so many are getting so excited about this, I might as well pass along this information.

I am tempted to say what I think about this; but there may be yet more twists and turns, so let's just see what comes first. Roma non locuta est--yet!

1 comment:

DP said...

This is such a hot-topic. I've decided I need to educate myself more on the issue since it seems all anyone is talking about. I've just posted a list of some resources I've found on the issue on my blog if anyone else out there feels they too need to educate themselves.