U.S. Catholic bishops tackle contraception, gays, communion

The nation's Catholic bishops adopted guidelines saying that those who minister to gay people should help them live chastely -- a document criticized by many gay Catholics but also by a group of conservative bishops who thought it should also exhort gay people to try to change their sexual orientation.

On another sexual issue, the bishops voted 220-11 without debate to approve a brochure for engaged couples that explains church teaching against artificial contraception and urges them to use natural family planning based on the woman's fertility cycle. But contraception figured heavily into a debate over a document on reception of communion, with the bishops rejecting an effort to name contraception as a reason to refrain from receiving communion.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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