There had been some speculation that a passing comment by Pope Benedict XVI during his in-flight press conference (well, a staged response to a few carefully-chosen questions--but who's to quibble!) may have signaled a change of policy regarding the ban on gay men entering the seminary. In addressing the sexual abuse scandal, the pope said, "I would not speak in this moment about homosexuality but pedophilia, which is another thing." Thatseemed to be abrushback to those who want to equate pedophilia and homosexuality.But it apparently did not signal a new papal openness to allowinghomosexuals to continue to be ordained. As this CNS story relates, the pope has shut that door and said, in response to 'numerous requests for clarifications," that the 2005 instruction "is valid for all the houses of priestly formation, including those that depend on the Congregation for Eastern Churches, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life."The Vatican ain't California...

David Gibson is the director of Fordham’s Center on Religion & Culture.

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