Archbishop of Moscow confirms Church still prohibits gay men from entering seminary

CV NEWS FEED // The Church’s policy prohibiting gay men from entering seminary has not changed, contrary to recent misleading media reports, the Catholic Archbishop of Moscow told a prominent Russian business newspaper this week, according to a Jan. 21 report from Big News Network.

The confusion on the topic occurred after the Italian Bishops’ Conference on Jan. 9 issued a new edition of “The Formation of Priests in the Churches in Italy: Guidelines and Norms for Seminaries.”

Following this, Reuters published an article Jan. 10 headlined, “Vatican approves Italian guidelines allowing gay men to become priests.”

Archbishop Paolo Pezzi, Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God, told the outlet Kommersant Jan. 21 that “First and foremost, it must be clearly stated that the information repeated by numerous news agencies following Reuters is not accurate,” Big News Network (BNN) reported.

Archbishop Pezzi said the incorrect reports caused a misunderstanding that “there was something fundamentally new in the decision that contradicts the Church’s traditional teaching on the matter,” BNN reported. The Archbishop referred to the Church’s teachings in the Catechism on homosexuality, and reiterated that the document reaffirms the Church’s seminary policy.

Archbishop Pezzi told Kommersant that “[t]he Church views ‘homosexual tendencies’ as ‘a specific case of the fragility of human nature,’ which can be ‘healed through a return to God,’” BNN reported, adding, “People with such tendencies, according to the archbishop, are no different from others who experience sinful temptations of various kinds.”

The Archbishop noted that all forms of unjust discrimination against persons who struggle with this temptation need to be avoided.