Bishop Doran: New instruction really does set limits

Bishop Doran's entire article is reproduced here...I'm not certain that there is an archive available via the web:

The Catholic News Service News Briefs as I write this have the headline, “Bishops Debate Whether Vatican Document is Total Ban On Gays.”

It seems to me that the whole of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church has suffered an attack of dyslexia. See what you think.

In an Instruction Concerning The Criteria For The Discernment Of Vocations With Regard To Persons With Homosexual Tendencies In View Of Their Admission To The Seminary And To Holy Orders, issued by the Congregation for Catholic Education on Nov. 4, 2005, having received the approval of our Most Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI on Aug. 31, 2005, states as follows:

From the time of the Second Vatican Council until today, various documents of the Magisterium, and especially the Catechism of the Catholic Church, have confirmed the teaching of the Church on homosexuality. The Catechism distinguishes between homosexual acts and homosexual tendencies.

Regarding acts, it teaches that Sacred Scripture presents them as grave sins. The Tradition has constantly considered them as intrinsically immoral and contrary to the natural law. Consequently, under no circumstances can they be approved.

Deep-seated homosexual tendencies, which are found in a number of men and women, are also objectively disordered and, for those same people, often constitute a trial. Such persons must be accepted with respect and sensitivity.

Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. They are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter.

In the light of such teaching, this dicastery, in accord with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, believes it necessary to state clearly that the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called “gay culture”.

Such persons, in fact, find themselves in a situation that gravely hinders them from relating correctly to men and women. One must in no way overlook the negative consequences that can derive from the ordination of persons with deep-seated homosexual tendencies.

Different, however, would be the case in which one were dealing with homosexual tendencies that were only the expression of a transitory problem — for example, that of an adolescence not yet superseded. Nevertheless, such tendencies must be clearly overcome at least three years before ordination to the diaconate.

My reading of the above material is this. As a bishop of the Church I cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who (a) practice homosexuality, (b) present deep-seated homosexual tendencies, or (c) support the so-called gay culture. In this it seems that the Holy See is most wise. A candidate who clearly falls into one or more of those three categories cannot be admitted to the seminary or advanced to the priesthood. In order to make these determinations, those charged with the admission of candidates to the seminary and to holy orders must use all of the resources at their disposal to examine each prospective candidate individually and to make a determination based upon the information legitimately obtained. The Code of Canon Law, can.1052 §3, states that if “the bishop doubts for specific reasons that a candidate is suitable to receive Orders he is not to promote him.”

I take up so much time and space on this issue because all of this has been so horribly mutilated in both the secular and religious press. It is important for each devout Catholic to be sure of what has been required by the Holy See before forming an opinion about it. In our devolving society, evermore dedicated to an oppressive moral relativism, the setting of any limits is regarded as intrinsically unjust.

But this age will pass as other hedonist ages have. What must remain constant is the teaching of the Church which, left in the hands of the apostles and their successors by our Lord himself, has always taken seriously its duty to lay hands not lightly on any man so as to be sure that those called to the priesthood are, insofar as it is possible for humankind to determine, apt for bearing the responsibilities they are asked to discharge. All of these things give us added reason to pray for seminarians and priests; first, so that God will call them in sufficient number to do His work, and then that these candidates may show themselves equal to the high calling to which they aspire.

Above all we should place these causes in the hands of the Blessed Mother whose great feast we have just celebrated that she, as Queen of the Clergy, will guide seminarians and priests to the fulfillment of their duties with that fidelity with which they themselves wish to carry out the sacred offices of the priesthood.