Priest With Rosary Beads

“Brother, keep going:” Vatican Opens Closet Door Allowing Gay Priests In Italy

In the Church there is place for everyone, for everyone. No one is useless, no one is superfluous, there is space for everyone. Just the way we are, everyone. — Pope Francis

A document published on January 10 by the Italian Bishops’ Conference allows openly gay men to apply for the priesthood.

The document stipulates that celibacy is the requirement—a routine mandate for the priesthood that, one would think, would override and make irrelevant whatever the candidate’s sexual preference was. It would be something like saying, “While you’re fasting, please refrain from eating any food.”

Nevertheless, the document is seen as a major step forward for the Church, which is trying to be more inclusive to groups such as women and the LGBTQ community, which it had previously shut out from holding ecclesiastical positions. The Italian bishop hierarchy, in particular, has been running thin on recruits and so has opened its gates in favor of more diversity in vocation.

The document states, “In the formative process, when referring to homosexual tendencies, it’s also appropriate not to reduce discernment only to this aspect, but, as for every candidate, to grasp its meaning in the global framework of the young person’s personality,” and adds that the goal is for the candidate to know himself and find harmony between his human and priestly vocation.

New Ways Ministry, an advocacy group for LGBTQ Catholics in the U.S., welcomed the document, saying in a statement, “This new clarification treats gay candidates in the same way that heterosexual candidates are treated. That type of equal treatment is what the Church should be aiming for in regards to all LGBTQ+ issues.”

Pope Frances has been ambivalent on the subject. On the one hand, he famously said, “Who am I to judge?” in response to a question on gay priests, and on the other, he openly expressed his doubts that gay priests could maintain their celibacy.

This past May, he apologized for using a homophobic slur in describing gays in a private meeting with 200 Italian bishops a week earlier. According to local reports, the pontiff said, “There is already enough faggotry” in Catholic seminaries. Shortly after the reports, the Vatican released a statement: “The pope never meant to offend or express himself with homophobic terms, and he issues his most sincere apologies to all those who felt offended by the use of a term reported by others.”

The document allowing gay ordination was signed by the head of the Italian bishops, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who is known to be a close collaborator to the Pope—an encouraging sign that His Holiness has made his decision in the direction of inclusion rather than exclusion.

Another positive signal was the Pope’s response to a letter received from a young man who had been refused entry to the seminary because he was gay. The young man wrote, “Many young people feel lost in a church that often seems to have become tied to a toxic and elective clericalism, where only some deserve to be accepted and where others are excluded as false Christians,” adding that such policies forced him and others like him to lie about their identities or “pay for sincerity with the high price of rejection.”

The Pope’s handwritten reply acknowledged that toxic and elective clericalism was “a plague” and concluded, “Jesus calls everyone, everyone. Some think of the Church as a customs office, and that is bad. The Church must be open to everyone. Brother, keep going with your vocation.”

Photo credits: Priest with rosary beads by RDNE Stock project via Pexels. Pexels license.