As shared by Rev. Fr. Mentor on Facebook. GAY PRIESTHOOD: LISTEN TO ME! I think I'm very comfortable with the current body language of most Catholics these days, especially when "anyhow news" is being paraded in the media about their faith... you are really showing understanding and a deep sense of prudence. Kudos to you all. I was tagged heavily yesterday in some channels and blogs to a news that had it that "The Pope and the Vatican had Legalized Gay men for Priestly Ordination". At first to be honest with you, I had a good laugh because it was sooo funny to me and at some point too I became very worried. I became worried NOT because the news might be true but because of what weapon the media has been in the hands of evil people, those who are fighting against the Catholic Church every second of the day. Listen to me! The Pope DID NOT say anything like that! The Vatican DID NOT say anything too! This is the "Demonic Narrative" of your media, the things that you consume online. They used the name of the Pope and the Vatican just to continue giving support to their agenda. Whatever was said was said by the ITALIAN BISHOPS CONFERENCE. Just as we have Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), we also have Associations like that in so many other countries. So even if what they said was true, it can ONLY be in their country. They came together for their plenary and touched some aspects of their worship and some areas were given attention. And one of the areas that received attention was the formation of Seminarians in their Catholic Seminaries. In the guidelines they released, it was the "Paragraph 44" that was causing the headaches and uproar. They took out time again to explain what they said without destroying the Orthodoxy of the Catholic Church...take a look👇🏿 44. “In relation to persons with homosexual tendencies who seek admission to Seminary, or discover such a situation in the course of formation, consistent with her own Magisterium, the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture’. Such persons, in fact, find themselves in a situation that gravely hinders them from relating correctly to men and women.” In the formation 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 global framework of the young person’s personality, so that, by knowing himself and integrating the objectives proper to the human and priestly vocation, he arrives at a general harmony. The objective of the formation of the candidate for the priesthood in the affective-sexual sphere is the ability to accept as a gift, to freely choose and to live responsibly chastity in celibacy. In fact, it “is not simply a sign of affection, but the summation of an attitude that is the opposite of possessiveness. Chastity is freedom from possessiveness in every sphere of one’s life. Only when love is chaste, is it truly love. A possessive love ultimately becomes dangerous: it imprisons, constricts and makes for misery. God himself loved humanity with a chaste love; he left us free even to go astray and set ourselves against him”. Furthermore, “celibacy for the Kingdom should be understood as a gift to be recognized and verified in freedom, joy, gratuitousness and humility, before admission to candidacy or first profession”. This does not only mean controlling one’s sexual impulses, but growing in a quality of evangelical relationships that overcomes the forms of possessiveness, that does not allow oneself to be seized by competition and comparison with others and knows how to guard with respect the boundaries of one’s own and others’ intimacy. Being aware of this is fundamental and indispensable to realizing the priestly commitment or vocation, but those who live the passion for the Kingdom in celibacy should also become capable of addressing, in renunciation for it, frustrations, including the lack of emotional and sexual gratification". For the Catholic Church teaches that "Homosexuality is a DISORDERED habit and has no place in the Catholic Priesthood", and the Italian Bishops are NOT saying anything different from that. I will be dropping the link to their disclaimer in the comments section for a better read. Please SHARE this post 🤍❤️🤍 Good Morning Fada Mentor