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full screen The Pride parade passes the Colosseum in Rome in June 2024. Photo: Mauro Scrobogna/AP/TT
Gay men are now allowed to train to become Catholic priests in Italy – but the opportunity comes with a caveat: They must hide their sexuality.
That’s what the Italian Church’s new guidelines, approved by the Vatican and published on Thursday, read. The guidelines allow gay men to attend seminaries or train as priests at theological schools.
Some of the 68-page long guidelines are aimed at “persons with homosexual tendencies who apply to seminaries” or to those who “discover” their orientation during education.
“The Church, which deeply respects the persons in question, cannot allow those who practice homosexuality, exhibit deep-rooted homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture to have access to the seminary and priestly ordination,” the document says.
According to the church, the aim of priestly training is to “freely choose and live in chastity in celibacy”, it is emphasized.
Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has encouraged a more inclusive church, including for LGBTQI people, despite the church’s official doctrine still stating that same-sex acts are inappropriate.