Vatican may ban gays from priesthood after abuse scandals

Guidelines being drawn up by the Vatican may bar homosexuals from entering the priesthood, sources in the Catholic Church say.

Vatican officials acknowledge that the guidelines are being considered by the Congregation for Catholic Education, but have declined to give details.

A report in the Rome newspaper La Repubblica this week indicated that the Vatican was preparing a new hard line on gays in the priesthood, and that an initial draft had concluded that seminaries should refuse to admit men with "homosexual tendencies". The Vatican was said to be rushing to complete the report because of the paedophile priest scandal in America, where half the trainee priests are thought to be gay.

Catholic sex abuse scandals have turned up abuse of boys rather than girls. "The combination of celibacy, all-male communities, secrecy and the power of the clergy is lethal," said a prominent Catholic observer.

Some within the Church say gay men who commit themselves to living chaste lives are just as entitled to become priests as heterosexual men who make the commitment.

Others say the pressures on gay priests are too powerful to resist, and that they should be filtered out before ordination.