Catholic bishops adopt plan for outreach to "Persons with a Homosexual Inclination"

You really can't make this stuff up.

The document says it's not a sin to be attracted to someone of the same gender -- only to act on those feelings. The bishops also state that children of gay Catholics can undergo baptism and receive other sacraments in most cases if they are being raised in the faith.

Still, under the guidelines, parishes must instruct gays to remain celibate. The bishops are also discouraging gays from making ''general public self-disclosures'' within their churches about their sexual orientation.

''It is not sufficient for those involved in this ministry to adopt a position of distant neutrality with regard to Church teaching,'' the bishops stated. Gay outreach must include teaching that is ''welcoming yet challenging, loving but firm in the truth,'' they said.

Then again, in all fairness, it did take the Catholic church leadership until 1992 or so to exonerate Galileo for the high crime of claiming that the earth was not in fact the center of the universe (seriously). So, on "Vatican Daylight Time," this is really only the year 1630 or so. So, give them another 400 years and we should be just about the 1950s.