Vatican news roundup

20/12/07

Catch up on the "Vatican versus The Gays" battle in our Vatican news roundup.

The Vatican has never had an particularly pleasant relationship with the LGBT community. In the the past few months, since the reign of Pope Benedict XVI began, the attitude has become especially hostile.

August 30th, 2005 Pope Benedict XVI is said to be considering a controversial new policy excluding gay men from becoming priests. Click here for more

September 5th, 2005 Activists hold a vigil outside the Vatican in memory of a gay man, Alfredo Ormando, who set himself on fire in protest of the Catholic Church’s treatment of lesbian and gay people. Click here for more

September 16th, 2005 News that Catholic investigators will search US seminaries for “evidence of homosexuality” has caused an uproar, with gays angrily charging the Vatican with mounting a “witch hunt”. Click here for more

October 25th, 2005 Roman Catholic bishops make their own decisions about whether to deny communion to politicians whose opinions differ from official church doctrine, according to a vote by the synod of bishops. Click here for more

November 14th, 2005 New details about a forthcoming Vatican document on gay priests - the subject of speculation and press leaks in recent months - are published by Italian newspaper Il Giornale of Milan. Click here for more

November 30th, 2005 The Vatican publishes its instruction on gays in the clergy. Men with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies should not be ordained, according to the nine-page document, but those with a "transitory problem" can be ordained if they have overcome their feelings for three years. Click here for more

December 5th, 2005 The Archbishop of Cardiff slams the new Civil Partnership Act, warning it will “undermine” marriage. The Roman Catholic Archbishop, the Most Rev Peter Smith, said that rather than focus on offering equality to lesbian and gay people, the government should look at promoting heterosexual marriage. Click here for more

December 16th, 2005 A group of gay Roman Catholic clergyman publish an open letter online defending their homosexuality. The letter says that they felt like church had unfairly rejected them, treating them like "unloved and unwanted children". Click here for more

Pope Benedict XVI had approved the instruction on August 31st, making it one of the first major documents he has approved for publication since being elected pope April 19th. While the document has been in development for years, its existence was discovered in 2002 during the clergy sex abuse scandal.