Vatican gay guidelines - Stance will force priests into closet

PERPLEXING paradoxes underlie Vatican guidelines reaffirming the ban on active homosexuals and “supporters of gay culture” becoming priests.

Redolent of an edict from another era, it appears to equate homosexuality with paedophilia, a cancer plaguing the Church as evidenced by the damning report on the scandal of clerical child abuse in Co Wexford.

Not surprisingly, the gay community is outraged over the thrust of the document, describing it as a blatant bid to scapegoat them for the problems besetting the church.