Gay men can train as priests but don't flaunt it — Italy Church

While stressing the need for celibacy, the Italian Bishops' Conference guidelines -- posted online on Thursday -- open the door for gay men to attend seminaries, or divinity schools that train priests.

But they came with a caveat -- that those who flaunt their homosexuality should be barred.

A section of the 68-page guidelines was specifically directed at "persons with homosexual tendencies who approach seminaries, or who discover such a situation during their training".

"The Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary and to Holy Orders those who practise homosexuality, present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture," read the document.

However, the guidelines say that, when considering "homosexual tendencies" of wouldbe priests, the church should "grasp its significance in the global picture of the young person's personality" in order to arrive at "an overall harmony."

The goal of training priests is "the ability to accept as a gift, to freely choose and live chastity in celibacy".

The new guidelines have been approved by the Vatican, the bishops' conference said in a  statement.

Pope Francis, 88, has throughout his papacy encouraged a more inclusive Roman Catholic Church, including for LGBTQ Catholics, even though official doctrine still states that same-sex acts are "intrinsically disordered".

In 2013, just after taking office, Francis famously said that "if someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?"

In June, however, the pope used a vulgar gay slur in a closed-door meeting with Italian bishops, according to two Italian newspapers, setting off a minor firestorm.

The pope had expressed his opposition to gay men entering seminaries, saying there was already too much "frociaggine" in the schools -- using an offensive Roman term that translated as "faggotry".

Some observers welcomed the new guidelines, with the head of New Ways Ministry, a US-based Catholic outreach for LGBTQ individuals, calling it a "big step forward".

"It clarifies previous ambiguous statements about gay seminary candidates, which viewed them with suspicion. This ambiguity caused lots of fear and discrimination in the church," said the ministry's Francis DeBernardo.

Another advocate for LGBTQ Catholics, US Jesuit priest James Martin, told AFP it was the first time a Vatican-approved document included the notion that judging who was eligible to join a seminary "cannot simply come down to whether or not he is gay".

Martin said he interpreted the new rule to mean that "if a gay man is able to lead a healthy, chaste and celibate life he may be considered."