The new Pope faces his first controversy over the direction of the Catholic church after it was revealed that the Vatican has drawn up a religious instruction preventing gay men from being priests.
The controversial document, produced by the Congregation for Catholic Education and Seminaries, the body overseeing the church's training of the priesthood, is being scrutinised by Benedict XVI.
It been suggested Rome would publish the instruction earlier this month, but it dropped the plan out of concern that such a move might tarnish his visit to his home city of Cologne last week.
The document expresses the church's belief that gay men should no longer be allowed to enter seminaries to study for the priesthood. Currently, as all priests take a vow of celibacy, their sexual orientation has not been considered a pressing concern.
Link.
Note the article's statement that "sexual orientation has not been considered a pressing concern." Yeah, well that kinda changed with the sex scandal a few years ago. Just as otherwise-normal heterosexual men often find teenage girls attractive, homosexual men find teenage boys attractive. It's called "pederasty," and it's been a significant part of homosexual life since ancient Greece.
It should also be noted that this proposed "ban" is nothing new. Seminaries often screened out homosexuals. That changed in the wake of the 1960s, which is reason enough to emphasize it again.
