A spokesman for Ireland's Catholic bishops said yesterday he was not aware of a Vatican document which it is claimed will ban even celibate homosexuals from the priesthood.
Reports from the Catholic World News agency in the US this week said Pope Benedict has approved such a document which, it is said, affirms the Catholic view that homosexuality is rooted in a personality disorder which could undermine the capacity to minister.
It was reported yesterday that an anonymous Vatican official had said the document would be released within weeks, as an "instruction" from the Congregation for Catholic Education.
Many Vatican documents over the years have said that men with homosexual tendencies should not be ordained to the priesthood, regardless of whether they remain celibate.
A 1961 Vatican "Instruction on the Careful Selection and Training of Candidates for the States of Perfection and Sacred Orders" said "[ advancement] to religious vows and ordination should be barred to those who are afflicted with evil tendencies to homosexuality or pederasty, since for them the common life and the priestly ministry would constitute serious dangers".
A 1997 letter from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments said "admission [ to the priesthood] may not take place if there exists a prudent doubt regarding the candidate's suitability".
This was interpreted as including men with homosexual tendencies.
In 2002, Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez, then prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, said it would be "absolutely inadvisable and imprudent, and from the pastoral point of view, very risky", to allow men with homosexual tendencies to become priests.
The Vatican press office announced in November 2002 that the Congregation for Catholic Education was preparing guidelines for accepting candidates to the priesthood which would address whether homosexuals should be accepted.