The Vatican has announced new measures for candidates applying to become Roman Catholic priests. Gay men will be banned from joining the priesthood even if they are celibate. This will not apply to those already ordained. Previous church policies had condemned homosexual acts but not homosexual orientation.
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According to the Guardian, leaks from a Vatican official who had seen the new proposed document, determining the sexual orientation of candidates in seminaries will be emphasised more than ever.

One of the most sensitive issues in the Catholic church is homosexuality in the priesthood. Controversy among Catholics has already been sparked based on the newly proposed statute.

Some church organisations agree that the rules are necessary to restore credibility after sex scandals have damaged the church in recent years.

Critics say the new measures will encourage candidates for the priesthood to lie about their sexual orientation, and that the Church’s lack of clergy will worsen. Some suggested that some gay priests may feel forced to leave.

Homosexuality has been utterly condemned by the Catholic Church up till now. Its teachings have distinguished between homosexual tendencies and homosexual acts which are "intrinsically disordered".

According to a policy from 1961, the Church is recommended not to ordain anyone who has “perverse inclinations to homosexuality or pederasty”.

Since then, many seminaries decided on each case individually and have supported candidates who considered themselves homosexual but promised to live a life of celibacy.

The Vatican official who spoke to New York Times said the document calls for even non-practising gays to be banned because of what he described as the ‘specific temptations of seminaries.’

"The difference is in the special atmosphere of the seminary," he told the newspaper. "In the seminary you are surrounded by males, not females."

The official acknowledged that there would be controversy upon the ruling but said that the Church was free to make its own decisions about who can join the priesthood.

"Being a priest is not a right," he said. "The Catholic Church never ordains anyone on the conception of human rights."

John Paul II, who died in April, and Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, have worked on the document for years. The document is undergoing last minute adjustments and is yet to be signed by Pope Benedict. It is expected to be revealed to the public within the next two months.