The 1985 memo

The Catholic News Service has obtained a 1985 memo from the Congregation of Education (cited in the new document) (Hat Tip: Open Book) addressing the question of homosexual priests:

A church source said the memorandum was issued in the middle of the Vatican's visitation of U.S. seminaries in the mid-1980s and was circulated to many but not all U.S. bishops.

After making it clear that the virtue of chastity and commitment to celibacy are required of all candidates to the Latin-rite priesthood -- including heterosexuals -- the document stated:

"A candidate who is homosexually active or who leads a homosexual lifestyle (whether he is homosexual or not) is not acceptable.

"A high standard of chastity and integration of the personality is required before admission to seminary, such that latent or repressed homosexuality is also a counterindication requiring that the candidate not be accepted -- it would not be fair to the individual nor to the seminary community," it said.

The memorandum said that in the discussion of homosexuality distinctions needed to be made among practice, orientation and temptation. The first two -- practice and orientation -- are "counter-indications of acceptability," when orientation is understood as "commitment to or support of homosexual practices or lifestyles."

It said temptations not directly linked to that kind of orientation would not in themselves disqualify a priesthood candidate.

Although the memo is offered to show that the Vatican's stance hasn't changed, isn't there a difference given the memo's definition of disqualifying orientation as "commitment to or support of homosexual practices or lifestyles?"  In other words, if an individual with "deep-rooted homosexual tendencies" commits himself not to support homosexual practices or lifestyles, wouldn't he take himself out of the disqualified category laid out by the 1985 memo?

Rob