VATICAN CITY (AP) Transsexuals suffer from ''mental pathologies,'' are
ineligible for admission to Roman Catholic religious orders and should
be
expelled if they have already entered the priesthood or religious life,
the
Vatican says in new directives.
The Vatican's orthodoxy watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith, sent the directives to the superiors of religious orders
worldwide. The leaders were told to implement the directives or turn
cases over to the Congregation for handling, Vatican officials said
Friday.
The directives were the latest in a series of Vatican pronouncements
on
eligibility for the priesthood issued ahead of a long-awaited set of
guidelines for seminaries in accepting candidates for the clergy.
Those guidelines, due out later this year, are expected to address
whether gays also should be barred.
In the new directives, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
said
transsexuals should be barred as priests, monks, friars, nuns and
brothers in religious orders.
''When, from clear external behavior and the testimony of those
assigned to formation, there emerges the prudent doubt about the presence
of transsexuality,the superior should arrange for a careful medical and
psychiatric exam,'' said the directive, which was reported Friday by
Adista, a liberal Catholic news agency.
''In the case that there is a serious and irreversible pathology of
transsexuality, (the candidate) cannot be validly admitted into the
institute orthe society, while in cases of doubt, it is forbidden to
allow admission since the candidate is missing a clear and full
eligibility,'' said the document, whose content was confirmed by a
Vatican official.
Transsexuals, for the most part, feel they were born the wrong gender
and undertake to change their sex, often through surgery and hormone
treatments. One person in between 10,000 and 30,000 is transsexual, the
U.S.-based National Transgender Advocacy Coalition estimates.
The Vatican document said transsexuals are considered to suffer from
''mental pathologies,'' a disassociation between their mind and body in
determining their sex.
The Vatican distinguished transsexuals from ''Intersexed'' people those
born with gender-ambiguous genitalia or internal organs.
Earlier this week, the Vatican upheld its decision to excommunicate
seven women who called themselves priests, repeating that the priesthood
was reserved for men only. And in December, the Congregation for Divine
Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments released a letter from its
prefect advising against bringing gays into the priesthood.