No loosening for gay priests: Mückl's clear announcement on the new guideline!

No loosening for gay priests: Mückl's clear announcement on the new guideline!

Köln, Deutschland - On January 14, 2025, the new guidelines for the priestly training of the Italian Bishops' Conference caused excitement after they came into force on January 9th. Despite the hope of change, the decision remains clear: homosexual men are still not admitted to the priesthood. The German canon lawyer Stefan Mückl from the Pontifical University of Santa Croce in Rome critically said that the ban was decided. He emphasized that the regulations in the new Directive , also known as ratio nationalis.

No significant changes

The new guidelines also include topics such as abuse prevention and the use of social media in priestly training, but the key message remains unchanged. Mückl found that the passage for sexual orientation is formulated more differentiated, but continues to exclude men with "deep -seated homosexual tendencies", as already defined by the Vatican in 2005 and 2016. Only the sentence that warns a more comprehensive view of the personality could be interpreted as a mitigating measure. Nevertheless, Mückl admitted that this was not necessarily the case and reminded that such a blurring may not be accidental.

The Jesuit and homosexual pastor Pino Piva also criticized the media reporting on the new regulations. He noticed that nothing has changed essentially that was supported by the Outinchurch organization. Rainer Teuber, spokesman for this initiative, described the new provisions as inadequate and emphasized that the teachings of catechism about homosexuality continue to be valid. Despite the progress intended by the bishops, the expectations of an inclusion of homosexual men in the priesthood remain disappointed, such as domradio.de reported.