Paolo Pezzi has dismissed reports that the Vatican welcomes gays joining the priesthood as misleading.
The Vatican has never allowed homosexuals to be priests, said Catholic archbishop and metropolitan of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow, Paolo Pezzi, calling previous media reports on the subject misleading.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported, citing a directive published by the Italian Episcopal Conference (CIE), that the Vatican had approved new guidelines allowing gay men to enter seminaries, as long as they remain celibate.
In a conversation with Kommersant on Monday, Pezzi dismissed media reports that gay men could become priests and clarified amendments to the guidelines for priestly training in the Church in Italy.
“First of all, it must be made clear that the information repeated by numerous news agencies following Reuters is not accurate.” the archbishop said to the media.
On January 9, the CIE published updated guidelines for accessing the priesthood in Italy. In point 44, which addresses the issue of homosexuality, the document states that seminary directors must consider the candidate’s sexual preferences, but only as “an aspect of your personality.” The media interpreted the amendment to mean that the ban on ordaining homosexuals was no longer in force, the archbishop said.
He added that media reports had shaped a misleading understanding of the issue, leading to an incorrect conclusion that “There was something fundamentally new about the decision that contradicts traditional Church teaching on the issue.”
The guidelines, on the contrary, emphasize the Church’s unwavering stance on the issue, the archbishop argued, noting that the teaching of the Catholic Church as outlined in its catechism “presents homosexual acts as a serious form of depravity.”
Pezzi quoted the document as saying that the Church “It cannot admit into the seminary or into the Holy Orders those who practice homosexuality, present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support the so-called homosexual culture.”
The opinions of the Church “homosexual tendencies” as “a specific case of the fragility of human nature” what can it be “healed by returning to God” Pezzi explained. People with such tendencies, according to the archbishop, are no different from others who experience sinful temptations of various kinds. “We must avoid any form of unfair discrimination towards them,” he added.
Since becoming pope in 2013, Francis has made a series of somewhat contradictory statements about homosexuality. When asked that year if he supported gay men joining the priesthood, he responded: “Who am I to judge?” However, in 2018, he suggested that gay priests should distance themselves from the Church, stating: “It is better for them to leave the ministry or the consecrated life than to live a double life.”
