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Gay Priests Slam Vatican
 15.12.2005-
A group of gay Italian clergy in the Vatican city said that their
sexuality has not stopped them from being good priests, a direct response
to a recent Vatican policy statement banning priestly candidates with
"deep-seated" homosexual tendencies.
The message, an
open letter in which the priests said they felt like the church's "unloved
and unwanted children," was posted on the Web site of the Italian Catholic
news agency Adista. The agency last month leaked the Vatican instruction
on gay priests a week before its scheduled release by the Holy See.
Adista said 39
priests, 26 diocesans and 13 more members of various religious orders had
signed the letter. However, the text reproduced on the Web site did not
include the signatures or list their names.
"We don't have
more problems living chastely than heterosexuals do, because homosexuality
is not a synonym of incontinence, nor of uncontrollable urges," the letter
states. "We are not sick with sex and our homosexual tendency has not
damaged our psychic health."
The official
"Instruction" from the Congregation for Catholic Education released late
last month said men "who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated
homosexual tendencies or support the so-called 'gay culture'" cannot be
admitted to seminaries. The only exception would be for those with a
"transitory problem" that had been overcome for at least three years.
The open letter
noted that "we are Catholic priests, with homosexual tendencies, and that
fact has not stopped us from being good priests."
"We consider our
homosexuality to be wealth, because it helps us to share the
marginalization and suffering of many people.”
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