CBCP: Gays still not admitted as priests

Gays are still banned by the Vatican from entering the priesthood, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said yesterday.

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, head of the CBCP National Appellate of Matrimonial Tribunal, which handles cases of priests for dispensation, said a document recently issued by the Vatican that sets standards by which seminaries should accept applicants for priesthood merely reiterated the Roman Catholic Church’s position on priestly formation.

The Vatican document, published in its entirety in Italian by the Catholic website Adista, said "the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the Seminary and to Holy Orders those who practice homosexuality, present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture."

However, the Church appeared to allow ordination for candidates who experienced "transitory" homosexual tendencies that they had "clearly overcome" at least three years before ordination as a deacon, the last step before becoming a priest. However, the document did not define what "overcome" meant.

The Vatican document did not give any instructions on how the "transitory problem" can be overcome, or how an applicant could offer proof that he no longer had these tendencies.

The document does not cover men who are already priests, but only those entering seminaries.

The Church issued in 1961 a document saying homosexuals should be barred from the priesthood. The Vatican, however, saw the need to issue updated guidelines, after scandals broke in the United States in 2002 involving the abuse of teenage boys by priests.

"Homosexuals are not acceptable to enter the priesthood. This is not discrimination but a reality. Just like some people are not meant for marriage, there are also those who are not fit to be priests," Cruz told reporters in an interview.

He explained that the ban is, in fact, a way of helping homosexuals who "will find it hard to relate with other students in the seminary and would just be the subject of ridicule, gossip, (and) suspicion, which is not fair."

Cruz, a former rector of San Carlos Seminary in Makati City, said the Church remains strict with its standards and is not ready to accommodate "extraordinary" setups.

He said seminaries also apply the same rule on applicants who exhibit machismo and other "unwanted" tendencies.

However, Cruz admitted that there are instances when unqualified applicants manage to enter the priesthood. He attributed this problem to the "poor reading (by) seminary administrators (of) applicants involved."

But he clarified that the number of failures in the proper screening of applicants for the priesthood remains insignificant and is no cause for alarm.