Rome:

Young homosexual men can train to become Catholic priests in Italy but not if they “support the so-called gay culture”, according to new Church guidelines approved by the Vatican.

While stressing the need for celibacy, the guidelines from the Italian Bishops’ Conference — posted online on Thursday — open the door for gay men to attend seminaries, or divinity schools that train young men to become priests.

But they came with a caveat — that those who flaunt their homosexuality should be barred. 

A section of the 68-page guidelines was specifically directed at “persons with homosexual tendencies who approach seminaries, or who discover such a situation during their training”.

“The Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary and to Holy Orders those who practise homosexuality, present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture,” read the document.

The goal of training priests-to-be is “the ability to accept as a gift, to freely choose and live chastity in celibacy”.

The new guidelines have been approved by the Vatican, the bishops’ conference said in an accompanying statement.

Pope Francis, 88, has throughout his papacy encouraged a more inclusive Church, including for LGBTQ Catholics, even though official church doctrine still states that same-sex acts are “intrinsically disordered”.

In 2013, just weeks after taking office, Francis famously said “if someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?”

In June, however, the pope used a vulgar gay slur in a closed-door meeting with the Italian bishops, according to two Italian newspapers, setting off a minor firestorm. 

The pope had expressed his opposition to gay men entering seminaries, saying there was already too much “frociaggine” in the schools — using an offensive Roman term that translated as “faggotry”.

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New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the guidelines issued by the National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC) and National Aids Control Organisation (NACO), imposing a blanket restriction on transgender persons, female sex workers, and gay men from donating blood.

Issuing notice, a bench, headed by CJI DY Chandrachud, directed the listing of the plea with a similar pending matter.

The plea, filed through advocate Ibad Mushtaq, said that the blanket prohibition provided under the 2017 Guidelines on Blood Donor Selection and Blood Donor Referral issued by the NBTC and NACO is a violation of the right to equality, dignity and life protected under Articles 14, 15, 17 and 21 of the Constitution.

“The impugned guidelines themselves are based on a highly prejudicial and presumptive view taken with regard to gay men in the 1980s in the United States of America and have since been revisited by majority of countries, including the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Israel and Canada, amongst others, the governments of which have come out with revised guidelines for blood donors which do not impose a blanket restriction on gay men or gender queer persons from donating blood,” it said.

The PIL said that a blanket restriction on blood donation is based on an assumption that a particular group of persons may be suffering from sexually transmitted diseases, however, screening of blood donors is conducted for every donation before a possible transfusion and in an era, where medical technology and education, especially in the field of haematology has progressed by leaps and bounds, a blanket prohibition emanating from a highly discriminatory view of gay persons, does not stand to reason.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)