ROME, Nov. 11 - A Vatican document would ban new priests who "present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies" but not exclude candidates who overcame any gay tendencies about four years before their final ordination, the Italian newspaper Il Giornale reported today.

The article presented the most detailed account yet, including direct quotations, of a document that has been in the works for a decade, one that has provoked heated debate on homosexuality in Catholic seminaries and, more widely, in the priesthood itself.

Even as the details are coming into closer focus, the newspaper printed only fragments of the document, an "instruction" to seminaries on homosexuality and the priesthood. The final eight-page document, Il Giornale reported, will be released on Nov. 29.

It remained unclear from the newspaper account exactly how restrictive the new rules would be.

But several experts, including both supporters and opponents of the new document, said tentatively that it appeared to make it harder even for celibate men who identify themselves as gay to become priests.