But is the door of the seminary closed to gay people?

Reflections by Paolo Spina*

On 9 January 2025, the Ratio nationalis came into force, the document that regulates the path of Italian seminarians (The formation of priests in the Churches in Italy - Guidelines and rules for seminaries).

It presents the training process of future priests, listing some innovations in the articulation of the stages of this path, as well as proposing vocational pastoral approaches and vocational accompaniment of young people and adults.

I scroll through it quite quickly, thinking back to the document of the Congregation for the Clergy "The gift of the presbyteral vocation" (2016). Then I approached it with very different feelings, in the situation of those who were placed in a certain sense "under examination" by these rules.

I arrive at paragraph 44 and find well-known lines promptly quoted, exactly as they were ten years ago: «In relation to people with homosexual tendencies who approach the Seminaries, or who discover this situation during their training, in coherence with its Magisterium, the Church, while profoundly respecting the people in question, cannot admit them to the Seminary and to Holy Orders those who practice homosexuality, have deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support so-called gay culture. The aforementioned people find themselves, in fact, in a situation that seriously hinders correct relationships with men and women».

I struggle to define the feelings I feel as I read these words, proposals (imposed) today as then. There is the bitterness of those who await greater sensitivity, without prejudice and illuminated by intellectually honest psychological contributions; there is the anger of those who see, for the umpteenth time, the use of erroneous and misleading terminologies in official documents drawn up by those who do not intend to make the effort to incorporate the progress in knowledge and language relating to sexual and emotional orientations; there is the sadness of those who sense the fear and desperation of those more or less young who feel the desire to spend themselves on a ministerial path at the service of the people of God, and see their dedication at the mercy of the current regulatory myopia, at the mercy of the discretion of formators and bishops.

For the sake of truth, paragraph 44 of the current document continues as follows: “In the training process, when reference is made to homosexual tendencies, it is also appropriate not to reduce discernment only to this aspect, but, as for every candidate, to grasp its meaning in the overall picture of the young person's personality, so that, by getting to know each other and integrating the objectives typical of the human and priestly vocation, achieves a general harmony".

It is important to put in black and white that discernment must not be reduced to sexual orientation alone - once again defined as a 'trend'! – but this statement completely loses value when, just before, the Ratio of 2016 is quoted verbatim, which defines homosexual men not only as unsuitable for priestly ministry, but incapable of relating appropriately with people of their own and of more sex!

Almost ten years have passed since that door was closed for me on a dark November evening, in which in a few minutes I went from being the perfect seminarian to persona non grata as I was openly homosexual.

I dreamed - and continue to dream - of a Church where we recognize each other as disciples by the love we have for each other, in the name of that Master who said: You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free (Jn 8, 32).

For this reason I imagined that the transparent and serene acceptance of my sexual orientation would not only be accepted and understood, but recognized as a sign of mature and honest discernment.

This did not happen; today I am a happy husband and baptized person, grateful to God for having visited me and filled my life with a love that I did not know, and that I learned and am learning together with Domenico, but I cannot and do not want to forget my story, because I firmly believe that God did not mock me, just as he does not joke with those who feel the desire to serve the Church as priests.

Not only for me, but even more so for them - men and women - I will never tire of raising my voice forcefully: not with the demands of those who claim a right, but demanding a more radical fidelity to the message of the Gospel, because those who are invested with the role of discerning recognizes the preciousness of the gifts that the Holy Spirit never tires of sowing in every daughter and son of God.

If the holy doors are the only ones to be thrown open in this Jubilee year, I fear we are not grasping the liberating and prophetic significance of Jesus' teaching.

*Paolo Spina is a doctor, passionate about Sacred Scripture and feminist and queer theology, who collaborates with the LGBT+ Christian Project and with Jonathan's Tent, writing on current affairs and Christianity.