United States gay-rights advocates on Wednesday denounced a Vatican edict that bans anyone with ”homosexual tendencies” from entering the Roman Catholic priesthood.
The ”instruction” handed down by Pope Benedict XVI damages the church and will hamper the recruitment of new priests, said a Catholic group that has campaigned for tolerance of homosexuals.
”It is demeaning not only to gay priests and seminarians, but [also] to the entire Catholic community who deserve much more informed teaching from their leaders,” said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the New Ways Ministry.
The document shows ”a woefully narrow and ignorant understanding of homosexuality” and will cause ”deeper personal and spiritual damage” to gay priests and seminarians, DeBernardo said.
Founded by a Catholic priest and nun 28 years ago, the New Ways Ministry works to promote reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the homosexual community.
Published by the independent Catholic agency Adista on Wednesday, the Vatican document says candidates for the priesthood must possess emotional ”maturity” in order to ensure a ”correct relationship” with both men and women.
The Human Rights Campaign, a US secular political organisation that campaigns for gay rights, accused the Vatican of trying to blame a spate of sex-abuse scandals on homosexuals.
”The Catholic Church is showing an aversion to both the teachings of Christ and science,” said Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese.
”At a time when the church should be taking responsibility for the harm created by a devastating sex-abuse scandal, they are instead using gay people as scapegoats.”
American conservative Catholic voices praised the edict, saying it will end what they called the ”homosexualisation” of the priesthood.
The text ”is welcome for both its firmness and clarity in making necessary distinctions”, Reverend Richard John Neuhaus wrote on the website of the journal First Things. — Sapa-AFP