Cardinals tout book on vocations and sexual orientation; Pope Francis writes preface
April 11, 2025
Pope Francis has written the preface to Vocazioni felici: Integrare orientamento sessuale, affetti e relazioni [Happy Vocations: Integrating Sexual Orientation, Affections and Relationships], a new book by Chiara D’Urbano, a psychologist and consultor to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Clergy.
Cardinal Baldassare Reina, Cardinal Lazarus You Heung-sik, and Bishop Michele Di Tolve spoke at the April 9 presentation of the book, according to a statement from the Dicastery for the Clergy. Cardinal Reina is vicar general of His Holiness for Rome and archpriest of the Lateran Basilica; Cardinal You Heung-sik is prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy; and Bishop Di Tolve, a Roman auxiliary bishop, is rector of the Pontifical Roman Major Seminary.
“Well-being, happiness pass through recognition of the humanity of priests, men and women religious, and the integration of the world of feelings and affections, beyond of the heteroaffective and homoaffective orientation,” D’Urbano stated. “It is not sexual orientation, in fact, that is the central issue, but affective integration.”
“The Lord did not call us to the ministry of common life because we are ‘special,’ better than others, but he came to look for us in our weakness, he knocked on our defective heart, he looked at and loved our human nature,” the Pope said in the preface, written in the form of a letter to the book’s author. “We must respond with all this to His call of love.”
The Pope contrasted “integrated” priests and consecrated persons with those who are “not integrated.”
In this sense, I believe we can say that integrated people, for example, can be priests and consecrated women who know how to recognize and bless ‘the heart,’ the unifying center and driving force of everything, and with creativity, courage, and audacity announce the Risen One. Critical people, who have locked their heart away or experience emptiness in their vocation, and then look for something else, are not integrated.
“Your book reminds us that the human sciences have much to tell us on the topic of the integration of affectivity, sexual orientation, and interpersonal relationships,” Pope Francis concluded. “I know that for years you have been involved in accompanying the hearts of brothers and sisters in your research, reminding us that priests and religious women will be fulfilled and happy vocations if they allow themselves to be shaped by Grace, and work on their own original and unique humanity, so that it becomes aware and harmonious.”
The publication of the book comes three months after the president of the Italian bishops’ Episcopal Commission for the Clergy and Consecrated Life and the Italian bishops’ newspaper denied media reports that newly approved national norms for the formation of Italian seminarians allow for the admission of gay men who are celibate to seminaries.
In 2016, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy issued the current norms for the formation of seminarians; the norms addressed the topic of men with homosexual tendencies in paragraphs 199-201. Citing a 2005 Vatican document, the 2016 norms state:
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.”
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Posted by: feedback -
Today 1:54 AM ET USA
Theodore McCarrick, while he was still a Bishop and then a Cardinal, proved that Bishops and Cardinals can be morally corrupt to the extreme and enjoy all sorts of promotions at the same time, which indicates the existence of a strong gay network of mutual support throughout the Catholic hierarchy, especially in the West. It seems that the same network is trying in a hurry to push some more pro gay agenda before the next Pope is elected.
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Posted by: dover beachcomber -
Apr. 11, 2025 8:26 PM ET USA
Once again, Francis abandons morality and discipline that have worked reliably and successfully in the past, and wants to replace them with an embrace of sin, serving up the change in a handsome word salad.
