Vatican Approves ‘Transitory’ Gay Seminarians by Bradley Eli, M.Div., Ma.Th. • ChurchMilitant.com • December 8, 2016 Relaxes 2008 ban on seminarians with "uncertain sexual identity" VATICAN (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Vatican's new guidelines for seminarians is relaxing the rules on men with homosexual tendencies. While continuing to exclude from the seminary men with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies," the new guidelines now allow in seminaries men with a "transitory problem" of "homosexual tendencies." The document, titled "The Gift of the Priestly Vocation," was promulgated Thursday, December 8, by the Congregation for the Clergy. Paragraphs 199–200 reads, While the above quote is in keeping verbatim with a 2005 instruction from the Congregation for Catholic Education, it nevertheless contradicts the updated and more restrictive guidelines put out in 2008 by the same congregation titled "Guidelines for the use of Psychology in the Admission and Formation of Candidates for the Priesthood." The 2008 guidelines direct seminaries to dismiss men who have not only "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" but also an "uncertain sexual identity." Of this latter group, the 2008 guidelines say their "path of formation will have to be interrupted." But this isn't the case in the current manual on seminary formation just promulgated by the Congregation for the Clergy, which leaves such men in the seminary to work out their "transitory problem." Click here for the rest of the article: http://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/vatican-oks-transitory-gay-seminarians
In practical terms, yes, but I don't think it's irrelevant in spiritual, pastoral or theological terms.