The Vatican has announced that individuals with same-sex attraction can pursue the priesthood in Italy, according to a document by the Italian Episcopal Conference and the Vatican's Office of the Dicastery for the Clergy. The document, titled "The formation of priests in churches in Italy. Guidelines and standards for seminaries," was first approved in the 78th General Conference in 2023. Last month, The Vatican's Office of the Dicastery for the Clergy granted a decree which enabled it to go into effect.

According to The Christian Post, the document referenced a Vatican article from 2005 titled "Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders."

"In relation to people with homosexual tendencies who approach the Seminaries, or who discover this situation during training, in line with their own Magisterium, the Church, while deeply respecting the people in question, cannot admit to the Seminary and to Holy Orders those who practice homosexuality, present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture," the Vatican stated.

The guidelines that took effect Thursday, however, suggest that same-sex individuals are not prohibited from seeking the priesthood in Italy.

Candidates to the priesthood are obligated to "welcome chastity as a gift, to freely choose it and live it responsibly in celibacy," the document stated.

The Vatican's approval of the document follows the negative headlines surrounding Pope Francis last year when he allegedly used a derogatory Italian term loosely translated to "faggotry” when discussing with 160 priests whether to admit men "with homosexual tendencies to seminaries."

He echoed "the need to welcome them and accompany them in the Church and the prudential indication of the Dicastery for the Clergy regarding their entry into the seminary."

Nevertheless, the pontiff also stressed that the Catholic Church should "be careful" to not "despise people with homosexual tendencies" but rather "to accompany them, because there are so many good people."

At the same time, however, Francis still reserved a need to "be careful about accepting them in the seminary."

"If a young man wants to enter the seminary and has a homosexual tendency: stop him," he said in a message delivered to the Italian Episcopal Conference a few weeks prior.

"This is something that the Dicastery for the Clergy has said and I support, because today the homosexual culture has progressed so much and there are good young men who want the Lord, but it's better not to [admit them to seminary]," he added.

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