Document to prescribe caution, not ban, on gay seminarians

The forthcoming Vatican document on homosexuals in seminaries will not demand an absolute ban, a senior Vatican official said on Friday, but will insist that seminary officials exercise "prudential judgment" that gay candidates should not be admitted in three cases.

The National Catholic Reporter's John L Allen says the three cases are:

• If candidates have not demonstrated a capacity to live celibate lives for at least three years;

• If they 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);

• If their homosexual orientation is sufficiently "strong, permanent and univocal" as to make an all-male environment a risk.

In any case, the Vatican official said, whether or not these criteria exclude a particular candidate is a judgment that must be made in the context of individual spiritual direction, rather than by applying a rigid litmus test. More of Document to prescribe caution, not ban, on gay seminarians @ CathNews, Australia -