By Christopher Cappiello

Vatican to Bar Gays as New Priests

A long-rumored Vatican ruling that will bar gay men from joining the priesthood is to be announced in the coming weeks, according to a high-level church official quoted in the Sept. 22 New York Times. The document, which was initiated during the end of John Paul II's papacy, is a dramatic demonstration of Pope Benedict XVI's commitment to "purify" the church in the wake of the sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the American church in recent years.

"In the seminary, you are surrounded by males, not females," the unnamed official explained to the Times, implying that gay seminarians are exposed to a degree of temptation too strong to resist. "It's not appropriate to put an alcoholic in a bar, either," said Mike Sullivan, of the conservative Catholics United for Faith. Many church observers opposed to the ban on gay seminarians point out that the vast majority of lay leaders in local parishes throughout the country are women, but nobody is implying that working heterosexual priests are in danger of succumbing to temptation.

The new ban comes just as the Vatican is launching a yearlong examination of U.S. seminaries, with visiting bishops and lay workers charged with watching out for signs of homosexuality. Many see the combination of the two efforts as an attempt by church officials to correct the image problems caused by the sexual abuse scandals. "It's simplistic blame-shifting," David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), told the San Francisco Chronicle. "What scandalized millions of Catholics and hurt tens of thousands of kids was the repeated transferring and covering up of molesters by the hierarchy -- that's the crux of the issue."

"The Vatican continues to be obsessed about homosexuality, misguided about human sexuality, and misdirected regarding the sexual abuse crisis in the church," said Debbie Weill, executive director of Dignity USA, a national organization of LGBT Catholics. "The church is fostering a climate of hostility towards some of its very best priests and bishops. This is not the church Christ called us to be," Weill added. "Candidates for the priesthood should be evaluated in terms of sexual maturity and their likelihood to be celibate, not sexual orientation."

"I feel like a Jew in Berlin in the 1930s," a 48-year-old gay priest told the Times on the condition of anonymity. He also said he was considering wearing a pink triangle and asking straight priests and parishioners to join him. "To quote John McNeill, ÔWhat is bad psychology must be bad theology,'" a gay priest told IN, referring to the former Jesuit best known for his landmark 1976 book The Church and the Homosexual. "Telling young gay men that they are unfit for the priesthood is psychologically damaging and supremely un-Christian."

What will the consequences of the proposed ban be on the church in the United States? It will likely aggravate a serious shortage of clergy, perhaps causing dioceses to close more churches, or to have more parishes function without any regular clerical leadership. "It's like they have this plan to empty the church," an unnamed gay priest on the East Coast told the Times. Gay men who are living out their vows of chastity, whether in the seminary or already ordained, may choose to leave. "I do think about leaving," a 30-year-old seminarian told the Times. "It's hard to live a duplicitous life, and for me it's hard not to speak out against injustice. And that's what this is."

Andrew Sullivan, the outspoken gay journalist, and a Catholic, joined the debate on Sept. 22 by invoking Rev. Mychal F. Judge, the late Catholic chaplain for the New York City Fire Department who died ministering to firefighters on Sept. 11. Sullivan posted the now-famous photograph of Father Judge's lifeless body being carried by several dust-covered firefighters under the mordant headline, "Unfit for the Priesthood." Father Judge, a longtime supporter of Dignity, and one of the first priests to minister to people with AIDS in the early 1980s, was known to be a celibate gay man.

"I don't care, and I don't think most Catholics care if a priest is gay," William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, told The New York Times in a story about Father Judge. Donohue is known to be a staunch guardian of the church's image and a strict critic of contemporary morals. Even he said, "The answer to the problem is not all of a sudden to roll out of bed and have this universal prohibition."

Reggae Star Charged with Assault on Gays

Buju Banton, one of Jamaica's most successful reggae artists, was released on $800 bail ($50,000 Jamaican) on Sept. 21 after being charged with assaulting six Jamaican men last year in a widely publicized gay-bashing incident, the Jamaican Observer reported. For months Banton was rumored to be a suspect in the June 24, 2004, crime in which a group of men forced their way into a Kingston, Jamaica, home and beat six gay men, two of whom were hospitalized. The assault came 15 days after longtime Jamaican gay activist Brian Williamson was brutally murdered in his home, with multiple stab wounds in the neck.

Banton is one of a number of Jamaican dancehall stars whose homophobic lyrics have been denounced for inciting violence against LGBT people. One of the singer's most famous songs, "Boom Boom Bye Bye," includes the lines, "Anytime Buju Banton come/ Batty boy get up and run/ ah gunshot in ah head man." The term "batty boy" is a familiar Jamaican slang term for a gay man. Homosexual activity is illegal in Jamaica, and gay groups report frequent police harassment and complain that gay bashing incidents do not receive attention from authorities.

The Jamaican court ruled that Banton, born Mark Myrie, must report to the Constant Spring Police Station every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. as a condition of his bail. His case is scheduled to come before the court starting Sept. 30.

The assault charge is not the 32-year-old singer's first run-in with the law. In April 2004 Banton was found guilty of "cultivation of cannibis," fined approximately $150, and was banned from traveling to the United States for a year, according to the Observer.

Putin to Increase AIDS Spending to $105 Million

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to increase Russia's historically meager spending on HIV/AIDS by 2,000 percent, according to Bloomberg News. The announcement came during a three-hour television call-in show on Sept. 27 in which Putin answered questions from 70 Russian citizens, a format he has used four times since taking office in 2000. The president assured viewers that the country's economic growth allowed for "large scale" increases in spending on a range of "serious problems," such as housing, wages, and HIV/AIDS. His plans call for $105 million to be spent on prevention and treatment next year, up from approximately $5 million in current spending.

Russia has lagged behind many other nations in addressing HIV infections. The virus is still associated with drug users and prostitutes in the country, and politicians have generally avoided the topic. International AIDS organizations have long warned of a simmering crisis in Russia, with the World Bank issuing a 2004 estimate that by 2020 Russia could have anywhere from 5.4 million to 14.5 million HIV cases. "No one will recognize an invisible problem," Vadim Pokrovsky, director of Moscow's Federal AIDS Center, told The Christian Science Monitor last year. "This is a great victory," Igor Sadreev, spokesman for the nonprofit AIDS Foundation East West, told Bloomberg News regarding Putin's increased spending and awareness of the growing problem of HIV infections.

China's First Gay Guide Published

In a sign that China's great wall of denial about homosexuality is cracking, the first printed guide to gay life in dozens of Chinese cities has been published by Utopia. The Utopia Guide to China covers 45 cities, including Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and many more lesser-known locales. With honest, detailed descriptions of hotels, restaurants, bars and baths, as well as insights into local culture, the bilingual guide offers recommendations, tips and warnings for the international gay traveler. Quotations from actual visitors round out the descriptions, providing first hand impressions about the gay scene in the various cities. In perhaps the most telling example of how far China has come, one contributor lists several Beijing Starbucks outlets as the best places to meet professional gay men.

Utopia has been a leading Internet resource for LGBT Asians and visitors to Asia since 1994. The guide can be purchased online from Utopia (www.utopia-asia.com) or through other online retailers and bookstores starting in October 2005.