Vatican document bans homosexuals from priesthood

AN UPCOMING Vatican document on gays and the priesthood says men who demonstrate homosexual tendencies can’t become priests unless they can show they have lived chastely for at least three years, an Italian newspaper reported yesterday today.

Men who publicly show their homosexuality and those who reveal an attraction to the homosexual lifestyle and culture should also be refused admission to the priesthood, the document said.

The report, by the newspaper’s chief Vatican correspondent, Luigi Accattoli, cited sources who spoke to him about the document, which is an “instruction” from the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education. The Italian newsweekly Panorama said in yesterday’s edition that Pope Benedict XVI had approved the document over the summer.