Catholic Church To Allow Gay Priests
The CBC reports,
A Vatican document expected to be made public soon says the Church will allow gay men who have lived chastely for three years to be candidates for the priesthood.
The document, which has been in the works for three years will update Vatican policy which up until now made clear that homosexuals should be barred from the priesthood.
A senior official with the Vatican, who requested anonymity because the document has not yet been released said the new policy will permit candidates who have lived a chaste life for at least three years before their admission to the seminary.
The Italian weekly Panorama said in its Friday editions that Pope Benedict XVI approved the document during the summer.
Wow. The Catholics just trumped JTS too!
i don’t think they’ve trumped JTS, necessarily. if JTS ordained gay rabbis, they’d be condoning gay sex, insofar as rabbis aren’t supposed to be chaste. granted they can’t get married so much, and who knows whether the commandment to copulate on friday nights holds if you can’t get a baby out of it. but the catholics require celibacy from the whole priesthood so they don’t have to deal with the question at all.
since when did catholics follow halacah?
I wonder if this is merely a face-saving move for the Vatican following its recent attempt to purge gays (even avowed celibates) from the seminaries. Whatever one thinks of the Church’s opposition to homosexuality, there’s little doubt that attempt was both pointless and extremely bad PR at a time when the Church really needs some promotion. Besides, unless the Vatican has Big Brother surveillance technology in place, how the blazes is it supposed to know whether a gay cleric, who says he’s been celibate, is telling the truth?
I don’t get this comparing Catholics to Jews, Mob. You make it sound as if Jews should take notice and try to out-liberalize them everytime. I personally don’t see why we should care about church policies. They don’t have any political significance anymore, so why should we, as non-adherents of their faith, care?
It’s one thing to want gay rabbis. I’d be happy to listen to any Torah based argument you could give for that (though I may not agree).
It’s another thing to argue “The Catholics allow gay priests, therefore, there should be gay rabbis”.
I think that’s a totally misled line of thought, homes.
Eh – Shmuel – I have to disagree with you there.
In religion – just like in any other “industry” – what your competitors do is totally relevant. Catholics have doctrine and traditions that they want to protect just like we want to keep a fence around the Torah. Finding ways to accept our MOTs who lead alternative life styles is a positive thing…if the other conservative monotheistic religions are doing it and we don’t – it says something about how stodgy and stubborn we are. It’s not a competition to “out-liberalize”. It’s about creating an inclusive community where all Jews are welcome. There are shiv’im pan’im l’torah – more than one of which includes the halachicly observant, passionate, educated Rabbis who for whatever reason don’t have the same sexual preference as you or me. God made people this way. It’s not a bad thing. That the Vatican has figured this out before most of our Rebbes in Jerusalem, Borough Park, and Morningside Heights – gives points to the Vatican.
does anyone know whether straight priests have to undergo any period of celebacy before he is able to take his position as a priest?
I wonder, though, how much difference this report really makes (per the Catholic/Jewish discussion) since gay priests still can’t have sex, or actually *do* anything homosexual. It seems like it would be a bigger deal in Judaism to allow gay rabbis, since you would really have to confront the issue of their sexual behavior (in line with what Sam said earlier). Whereas all the Catholic Church has avoided here is a highly invasive, extremely disruptive and complicated witch hunt.
danny: I read that potential priests have to be celibate for about 3 years before entering seminary. So I assumed that’s standard Catholic policy, but not totally sure…
Shmuel, Christians run the US and where as the ones at the helm aren’t catholic, it doesn’t mean that “They don’t have any political significance anymore…”.
As a faith, you’re right, fuck it. But don’t turn your back on these Christians, cause you’ll be left with a knife in it. I know this personally. America (and the Christians, for that matter) have and will have a major impact on Israeli life. Bet.
America (and the Christians, for that matter) have and will have a major impact on Israeli life.
Are you talking about this issue specifically, though? Because I really don’t see how Catholic admission, or prohibition, of gays in the priesthood will affect Israel that much (except for Catholic life in that country). It won’t have much of an impact on Jewish life, except to maybe pressure Jews into more seriously facing the sexuality issue.