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SHMS rector:
Vatican document is a 'guide'
By Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published December 2, 2005
Detroit – An instruction approved by Pope Benedict XVI on priestly formation regarding men with homosexual tendencies will serve as a way to ensure candidates for the priesthood are formed properly to embrace their sexuality and celibacy as a gift from God, said Detroit Auxiliary Bishop John Quinn at a news conference Tuesday.
Early this week, seminaries around the world and especially in the United States – where gay marriage and the civil treatment of homosexuality are openly debated in media – were absorbing a nine-page document from the Congregation for Catholic Education, which after more than eight years of discussion was published Tuesday by the Vatican.
"We're talking about preparing a candidate so that they can come freely and embrace celibacy as life-giving," said Bishop Quinn while fielding questions at a local media briefing at Sacred Heart Major Seminary.
Fr. Steven Boguslawski, OP, rector of Sacred Heart Major Seminary, said the document would serve as "a guide, a help to ensure we're doing the best we can to form young men for the priesthood."
Cardinal Adam Maida, who sits on the Congregation for Catholic Education, was out of town during the briefing.
The document states that those who commit homosexual acts, those who are battling "deep-seated homosexual tendencies," and those who support the so-called gay culture cannot be admitted to seminary studies for priestly formation or to Holy Orders. Men who experience "homosexual tendencies that were only the expression of a transitory problem" must "clearly overcome" such tendencies at least three years before being ordained to the diaconate, the document states.
The document does not describe what is meant by "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" or "clearly overcome." It states as an example of a "transitory" homosexual problem "that of an adolescence not yet superseded."
Having just received the instruction – which was approved by the pontiff Nov. 4, on the feast of St. Charles Borromeo, patron saint of seminaries – Fr. Boguslawski said it would take time for the staff at Sacred Heart to absorb and discuss it.
"It will require considerable consultation with (Cardinal Maida) and very careful study to ensure that we're implementing the policy faithfully and continuing to form future priests in a responsible manner," Fr. Boguslawski said.
Much of what the new instruction states, he added, already has been in practice because the document echoes the sentiment of Pastores dabo vobis, an apostolic exhortation by Pope John Paul II published in 1992. In that exhortation, the previous pontiff warned against the distortion of the meaning of human sexuality. The same document also established the four pillars of formation used by Sacred Heart and other seminaries – human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral.
Dealings with homosexual tendencies would involve part of the human pillar of formation.
The new instruction states that those who commit homosexual acts cannot be admitted to seminaries because homosexual acts, as is stated in Sacred Scripture and held by the Magesterium, are grave sins – "intrinsically immoral and contrary to the natural law."
Those with deep-seated homosexual tendencies and those who support the so-called gay culture, the document states, "find themselves in a situation that gravely hinders them from relating correctly to men and women."
It also acknowledges that deep-seated homosexual tendencies "often constitute a trial" for men and women who exhibit them, and that "such persons must be accepted with respect and sensitivity." Such persons, the document states, "are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and to unite the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross (with) the difficulties they may encounter."
Fr. Boguslawski said same-sex attraction can cause a person great spiritual suffering. Such a spiritual hindrance, he said, must be able to be overcome as a seminarian forms himself to imitate Christ and form a bond of "spiritual fatherhood" with God's people.
"It really is the gift of the whole person to the Church," Fr. Boguslawski said. "And what we're expecting is that the candidate will be configured to Christ… In order to have a right relationship with women and men, one has to possess an affective maturity in himself."
Fr. Boguslawski stressed that seminarians have a great deal of guidance during their years in the seminary, including guidance from spiritual directors, mentors, a formation staff, and extensive psychological testing and assessment. Already, those who wish to apply for the seminary are required to have lived celibately for a minimum of two years.
The Vatican document was signed by Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the educational congregation, which prepared it for use by bishops, religious superiors and seminary rectors.
Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops, has urged "prayerful and honest" discussion of the instruction among priests and seminarians. Sacred Heart already has had a staff meeting to discuss the new instruction, and will be discussing it with seminarians either late this semester or early in 2006, Fr. Boguslawski said.
Crediting previous Cardinal Archbishop Edmund Szoka, Cardinal Maida and the previous rectors of the seminary, Fr. Boguslawski said Catholics in the Archdiocese of Detroit should be "very confident" in the quality of priestly formation at the seminary.
During Tuesday's press conference, Fr. Michael Byrnes, vice rector and dean of formation at Sacred Heart, said that regardless of whether they deal with homosexual tendencies, young men considering the priesthood still ought to have faith in their prayerful discernment.
"What I would tell any young man is trust the process of discernment," Fr. Byrnes said. "It involves the (candidate), but it also involves the Church – the Holy Spirit is at work in all of this."
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