BALTIMORE —The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops overwhelmingly approved new guidelines yesterday on outreach to gays, trying to support gay parishioners while strictly affirming the church stance that same-sex relationships are “disordered.”

Gay Catholic activists immediately judged the document a failure that will push gay and lesbians away from the church.

The statement, “Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination,” upholds the Catholic prohibition against same-sex marriage and adoption by gay or lesbian couples.

Yet bishops insisted that they’re trying to be more “welcoming than condemning.”

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.

The 194–37 vote, with one abstention, came at a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Sam Sinnett, who is the president of DignityUSA, an advocacy group for gay Catholics, said the new guidelines reflect the bishops’ ignorance about sexuality. He said the document would alienate gays.

“This document recommends the most unhealthy thing to do which is to stay emotionally and spiritually in the closet,” Mr. Sinnett said.

Some bishops anticipated such criticism.

“For the person with the inclination, they find that very, very difficult to accept, personally,” Bishop Kevin Boland of Savannah, Ga., said during the floor debate Monday. “They feel that the church is saying to them that as a person they are disordered. I recognize that it is crucially important to say this, but to apply it pastorally, it can be difficult.”

On another matter yesterday, bishops overwhelmingly adopted a statement encouraging Catholics to obey the church’s ban on artificial contraception.

Church leaders at the gathering are also discussing how Catholics can make themselves worthy to receive Holy Communion. Several bishops said Monday that Catholics who persist in ignoring church teaching, including gays who are sexually active, should not take the sacrament.

Meanwhile, a month after an appeals court ruled against same-sex marriage, the city and about a dozen homosexual couples have filed an appeal to the California Supreme Court.

Gay marriage advocates hope to overturn the ruling that said limiting marriage to a man and a woman does not violate the constitutional rights of gays and lesbians.

If the high court takes the case, a decision on same-sex marriage is likely a year or more away. The justices have 90 days to announce their intentions.

In October, the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled in a 2–1 vote that, among other things, it was not the judiciary’s role to define marriage — since 61% of California voters in 2000 declared marriage as a union between a man and a woman under Proposition 22.