[news] Wait and (The Holy) See

I've asked a theologian in our group to give reactions to the Vatican instruction to boot homosexuals from seminaries. He responded, "Wait and see."

Robert,

This is why I am waiting [before making any judgments], this is a quote from John Allen, National Catholic Reporter, CNN special expert:

Many readers undoubtedly have questions about reports concerning a new Vatican instruction on the admission of homosexuals to seminaries. I'll have analysis in the near future, though one note of caution is in order: we don't yet have the document, and as always with church texts, the devil is in the details.

(link to rather long article)

That's particularly true with this instruction, since the Vatican has already twice published documents indicating that homosexuals should not be admitted to the priesthood (a document from the Congregation for Religious in 1961 and another from the Congregation for Divine Worship in May 2002). To what extent the new instruction will mark a change in policy, and what its practical impact may be, therefore remains to be seen.

EDIT.

I don't know how accurate the following is, but John Allen also recommends that we take the Vatican's missive with a grain of salt. Italian jurisprudence, apparently, is very different from Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence. This has little to do with homosexuality, but might help you challenge your idea about what law is.

Although this is a difficult point for many Anglo-Saxons to grasp, when the Vatican makes statements like "no gays in the priesthood," it doesn't actually mean "no gays in the priesthood." It means, "As a general rule, this is not a good idea, but we all know there will be exceptions."

Understanding this distinction requires an appreciation of Italian concepts of law, which hold sway throughout the thought world of the Vatican. The law, according to such thinking, expresses an ideal. It describes a perfect state of affairs from which many people will inevitably fall short. This view is far removed from the typical Anglo-Saxon approach, which expects the law to dictate what people actually do.

...


As one senior Vatican official put it to me some time ago, "Law describes the way things would work if men were angels."

(link to article)