In contrast with LGBT Catholic and civil rights groups, gay and straight Bay Area theologians and ministers are lending a generous interpretation and calm response to a new Vatican instruction that seeks to ban gays from becoming priests.

Local Catholic clergy said the instruction mostly reiterates what the community already knows about priest criteria, and that some worst case scenarios and panic have resulted from reporters mistranslating the Italian document.

The instruction, approved by Pope Benedict XVI in August and signed by the Catholic Education Congregation Prefect Zenon Grocholewski on November 4, appeared on a Roman progressive Catholic Web site, headlined, "Ethical Cleansing" on Tuesday November 22. It was formally published by the Vatican Tuesday, November 29.

The Vatican said Tuesday that there would be no crackdown on gay priests, according to the Associated Press.

One phrase in the instruction tells seminary spiritual directors they have an obligation to dissuade seminarians "who practice homosexuality," or show "profoundly rooted homosexual tendencies."

Elsewhere the document stipulates that those entering the seminary must not "support the so-called gay culture," which, in the opinion of LGBT Catholic group Dignity is a direct reference to the LGBT civil rights movement. Dignity members compared the instruction with the hierarchy's view toward St. Francis' liberation theology or St. Boniface's Father Louis Vitale, a straight priest who has marched in Pride parades.

Father James Bretzke, the theology department chair at the University of San Francisco, said mistranslations have put a negative or conservative spin on the instruction.

The phrase "practicing homosexuality" (praticano) and "profoundly rooted homosexual tendencies," (tendenze omosessuali profondamente radicate) Bretzke interprets literally, as active in intent – "behavior that can't be overcome," said Bretzke, such as frequenting sex clubs or compulsively viewing Internet pornography, not simply orientation, since there exists an Italian word for that, which the Vatican chose not to use.

"I do not believe this phrase refers to homosexual orientation," said Bretzke. "The fact that they didn't use 'orientation' means that's not what they meant."

The document refers to homosexual tendency as "objectively disordered," which Bretzke called a technical term comparable to an archer disordered in his aim.

Any sexual behavior, such as birth control or male ejaculation (unless for procreation), is similarly disordered, said Father Cameron Ayers of St. Agnes Catholic Church in the Haight District, labeling the term Aristotelian.

But LGBT Catholic groups say broad, vague, and ambiguous language like the word "disordered," raises many questions, and that the Vatican only engages LGBT Catholics "at the level of pathology," indicating "internalized homophobia of so many Catholic institutions," said Martin Pendergast, of the United Kingdom's Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement's Roman Catholic Caucus, in a prepared statement.

His group sought clarification on whether the tendency or the activity – gays, or those unable to remain celibate – are labeled disordered and should be refused ordination.

The Rainbow Sash movement, New Ways ministry, and other groups are especially angry with the document's assertion that gay men cannot relate adequately to men and women, "which is clearly ridiculous in the face both of the demographic facts and of the faulty psychology of the relationship underlying this assertion," they said.

Enforcement issues

One local gay priest, who agreed to speak with the Bay Area Reporter on the condition of anonymity, speculated that the instruction would be disregarded or not stringently enforced in the Bay Area.

"People often think the church is monolithic, lock-stepping," said the priest. "[We] come by all sorts of directives. There is room for discussion."

Bishops have wiggle room in enforcement of the instruction, said Ayers, who believes Bay Area bishops know that there are many celibate, faithful, gay clergy "who make a generous contribution to the life of the church."

"Like a large ship in the ocean, it takes a long time to turn the steering wheel," said Ayers. "We have to wait and see how this is received, interpreted, and enforced."

Ayers stressed that in church law hierarchy, instructions such as this one, while carrying the pope's approval, is, "down the ladder in terms of the weight it carries."

One loophole for gay seminarians is that a confessor/spiritual director is limited by canon law, a sacred trust, and "bound by the seal of the confessional," said Bretzke, not to divulge and not to use privileged information to govern the individual in the external forum with other staff if the seminarian wants to go ahead and be ordained.

"So, the fact of it is, the entire decree is based only on the good will of people enforcing it," said the anonymous priest.

"To me, the call to be a priest comes from the Holy Spirit," said Ayers. "We can't narrow down who gets invited."

Dignity San Francisco co-chair Gino Ramos agreed that it is not a counselor's right to stand in the way of a higher power calling someone to priesthood.

Being a complete person requires fostering healthy development and knowledge of oneself, instead of repressing one's sexuality, said Ramos. "An asexual priest can't relate to his congregation."

Bretzke said the instruction is more about damage control.

"My own opinion, I think, is it is about damage control over the sexual abuse crisis," said Bretzke. "The bishops and the hierarchy look like they're addressing it so it won't happen again. This will prove that we're trying to regain [control], to show we're serious."

But Ramos said that the Vatican should condemn the abuse by predatory priests, admit guilt, and punish the bishops, instead of scapegoating gay men to cover up the millions of dollars in court settlement costs.

The instruction is more Rome's way of reasserting authority in response to many American denominations' movement toward welcoming LGBT people, than the abuse scandal, said the East Bay priest. He added that he believes Rome is also partly motivated by attempting to attract parishioners in Third World countries – where Catholicism is growing – by demonstrating a policy aligned with cultural homophobia, to compete with Muslim and other faiths, and distancing itself from American LGBT affirming religious movements.

"Gay friendly, progressive churches are only American, to be quite honest," said the anonymous priest. "Africans would be threatened by that."

Ramos disagreed, saying that compassion, not homophobia, is the way to attract churchgoers.

San Francisco Archdiocese spokesman Maurice Healy said the Vatican communication should not be interpreted as antigay, that the instruction only addresses sexually active seminarians, restating the church's policy on priestly chastity.

"If you want to be an actively gay person, regardless of your sexual inclination, the church is not for you," said Healy. "I don't see a great deal of change."

Seminary is a formation process and sexual maturity requires creating a dialogue, said Healy, who did not think the statement will encourage gay seminarians to stay closeted.

Paragraph 23-32 of the Catechism says that every man and woman should acknowledge his sexual identity as spiritual and moral, noted Bretzke.

"You can't say those two paragraphs call upon men to stay in the closet."