Done Document

It's now official.

The instruction (PDF format) regarding the prohibition on ordaining homosexual men to the priesthood has been formally released.

If you are at all a diligent scanner of 'blogs, you have seen all the speculation and ranting on both sides of the issue. They speak for themselves. I will make note of two posts that I found interesting, written within the past week since the document was leaked to the media.

Amy Welborn gives us a different focus:

But the other reason is simply that when it comes to guidelines, as reasonable as it might seem to do the "no homosexuals in the seminary thing," it doesn't get at the problem. The problem is not, in simple terms, the homosexual priest. The problem is priests who don't believe what the Catholic Church teaches on sexuality, who don't preach it, who don't witness to it in the confessional, and who don't live it in their private lives.

Do you see the difference?

Domineco Bettinelli "thought it would be worthwhile to revisit one of the most controversial and commented upon articles ever to run in Catholic World Report." The post and what he sees:

Whether we agree or disagree that the chaste and celibate man with same-sex attraction can be a fine and holy priest, let's acknowledge that this isn't necessarily the problem we're dealing with. As Shaughnessy points out, if you look only at the statistics on AIDS among priests, you begin to get a clearer idea of how much unchaste, uncelibate homosexuality there is among them. Focus deeper and the vile picture becomes clearer.

Thus, the necessity of the document.