The Vatican has approved new guidelines for Italy that say that an applicant for the seminary cannot be rejected simply because he is gay, as long as he remains celibate.

The guidelines say that seminary directors should consider sexual orientation as only one aspect of a candidate’s personality.

They do not change the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching that “homosexual tendencies” are “intrinsically disordered,” and that men with “deep-seated” gay tendencies should not become priests. But they clarify that if a candidate remains chaste, his sexual orientation should not disqualify him from entering the priesthood.

The Catholic church has struggled for years with the contradiction that the priesthood has long been a refuge for gay men, while church teaching rejects same-sex relations.

Bishops in other countries where homosexuality is regularly condemned are not likely to consider guidelines similar to those of the Italian bishops.

The guidelines — adopted by the Italian Bishop’s Conference in November and approved by the Vatican’s clergy office — went into effect on Thursday for a three-year trial period. They cover various aspects of a candidate’s years in seminaries, the schools that prepare men for priesthood.

“This is the first time I’ve seen in a Vatican-approved document the suggestion that discernment about whether a gay man may enter the seminary cannot be determined simply by his sexual orientation,” said the Rev. James Martin, a high-profile supporter of making the church more welcoming to gay Catholics.

“My reading of this — and it is only my reading,” added Father Martin, who is based in New York, “is that if a gay man is able to lead an emotionally healthy chaste and celibate life, he may be considered for admission to the seminary.”

The thorniness of the issue became clear last year, when reports emerged that Pope Francis had used an anti-gay slur when responding to Italian bishops at a conference in May about admitting gay men into seminaries.

In his remarks, Francis said that there was already too much gayness in Catholic seminaries, using a pejorative to describe it, according to bishops who attended the conference. The Vatican later apologized.

In June, the pope was again accused of repeating an anti-gay slur during a meeting with priests in Rome.

The repeated use of the slur shocked many Catholics who had embraced Francis’ mostly inclusive message urging the church to be more welcoming to members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community. He has met often with gay-rights activists, and in 2023 he decided to allow priests to bless same-sex couples — but not bless their unions.

Father Martin, who met with Francis after the episodes last year, later shared a post on social media that said, “With his permission to share this, the Holy Father said he has known many good, holy and celibate seminarians and priests with homosexual tendencies.”

Yet, Francis has repeatedly expressed concern that gay candidates for priesthood can end up having relationships and living what he described as double lives.

In 2016, he greenlighted a document on priestly vocations that stated that men with “deep-rooted” homosexual tendencies should not be allowed to enter into seminaries, reprising a 2005 document approved by Benedict XVI.

Seminary directors have interpreted these instructions in different ways, but the new guidelines offer some lucidity.

The guidelines, posted on the website of the Italian bishops’ conference on Thursday, cite the 2016 document’s ban on men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies but also state: “When referring to homosexual tendencies in the formation process, it is also appropriate not to reduce the discernment to this aspect alone but, as with any candidate, to understand its meaning within the overall picture of the young person’s personality.”

The guidelines also say that “the goal of the formation of the candidate for the priesthood in the affective-sexual sphere is the ability to welcome as a gift, to freely choose and responsibly live chastity in celibacy.” Sections of the guidelines on the importance of celibacy do not differ based on sexual orientation.

“It is a step forward,” said Francis DeBernardo, the executive director of New Ways Ministry, a group based in Maryland that supports gay Catholics.

“It clarifies previous ambiguous statements about gay seminary candidates, causing lots of fear and discrimination. And this clarification treats gay candidates in the same way that heterosexual candidates are treated. That type of equal treatment is what the Church should be aiming for in regards to all LGBTQ+ issues.”

Mauro Morandi, whose 32-year sojourn on an uninhabited Mediterranean island led to his being known as Italy’s Robinson Crusoe, died on Jan. 3 in Modena, Italy. He was 85.

The cause was a brain hemorrhage, said Antonio Rinaldis, who wrote a 2023 book with Mr. Morandi about his life on the island.

Unlike Daniel Defoe’s hero, who was shipwrecked and fervently hoped to be rescued, Mr. Morandi chose his life of solitude.

He said he had fallen in love at first sight with Budelli, a pristine, undeveloped island off the northern tip of Sardinia. He arrived in 1989, somewhat by chance, he said in interviews. He left — against his will — in 2021, writing on social media that he was tired of “fighting against those who want to send me away.”

Mr. Morandi’s singular choice to live in solitude spawned at least two books, at least one song, short documentaries and countless interviews. As the world turned inward during the coronavirus pandemic, reporters sought Mr. Morandi’s insights on isolation.

“I read a lot, and think,” he told CNN in 2020. “I think many people are scared of reading because if they do, they’ll start meditating and thinking about stuff, and that can be dangerous. If you start seeing things under a different light and be critical, you could end up seeing what a miserable life you lead.”

Budelli, one of the main islands that make up the Maddalena Archipelago, is a dab of paradise occupying less than two-thirds of a square mile. It is known for its pink sand beach surrounded by turquoise water. The island has no running water, is not connected to an electrical grid and is accessible only by boat.

Mr. Morandi lived in an abandoned World War II hut, tacking up canvas tarps in an open area in front. He created sculptures from branches, cooked on a propane stove and read voraciously, buying books and supplies on trips to La Maddalena, the largest town on the archipelago. Visitors also brought him food and water. He used car batteries and solar power to charge his cellphone and his tablet.

It was, he said, “a simple life made up of big and small pleasures.”

“The most important thing,” he added, “is that I have a serene relationship with time.”

For years he was the island’s designated guardian, hired by the Swiss-Italian real estate company that owned it.

His main task was to protect the island’s habitat from unruly tourists, who are allowed only on certain paths, part of an effort by Italy’s environment ministry to protect the rare pink sand. He told people about the marvels of the island, and how fragments of coral and shells had turned the sand pink. He picked up trash from the beach, cleared the island’s paths and carried out light maintenance.

Mr. Morandi initially chose to live as a hermit, he said in an interview at Genoa’s maritime museum, but he ultimately welcomed select people as part of his mission to make them “understand why we need to love nature.”

He said he did not miss human contact. “He didn’t like what humanity had become in the 21st century — consumeristic and individualistic — especially with regard to nature,” Mr. Rinaldis said. That was why Mr. Morandi cared about protecting Budelli.

When he finally got an internet connection, he used social media to showcase the island’s untamed beauty.

In 2016, after a protracted legal battle over the island’s ownership, it was turned over to the state and became part of Maddalena Archipelago National Park. Mr. Morandi was asked to leave.

The park’s president, Giuseppe Bonanno, acknowledged Mr. Morandi’s unique position. “Morandi symbolizes a man, enchanted by the elements, who decides to devote his life to contemplation and custody,” he told reporters. But there were other issues, including whether Mr. Morandi would be able to survive a medical emergency alone, not to mention his shack’s failure to meet code.

He fought back. He campaigned against his eviction on social media. He gave interviews to the news media. An online petition drew nearly 75,000 signatures.

“We do not want Mauro to leave the island because we think first of all that if Budelli has remained a wonder of nature it is also thanks to him,” the petition said. “And second, because we are convinced that the park has everything to gain from his presence: Mauro has lived on Budelli for a quarter of a century, he knows every plant and every rock, every tree and every animal species, he recognizes the colors and scents with the changing of the wind and the seasons.”

But after battling the authorities for five years, Mr. Morandi relented. He was 82 and no longer in good health. “Part of his resignation was tied to his fragility,” Mr. Rinaldis said, “but he was also disappointed because he had been forced to leave by the authorities.”

Mr. Morandi left the island for good in March 2021 and moved to a small apartment in La Maddalena. “I’ll leave hoping that in the future, Budelli will be safeguarded, like I’ve been doing it for 32 years,” he said.

Mauro Morandi was born on Feb. 12, 1939, in Modena. His father, Mario Morandi, was a gymnast who won the national championship for artistic gymnastics in 1936 and was later the caretaker of a school. Mauro’s mother, Enia Camellini, worked for a tobacco company.

Mr. Morandi studied to become a physical education teacher and taught at a middle school in Modena through the 1970s, when he was able to retire early. He had three daughters during a marriage that ended in divorce.

They survive him, as do a brother, Renzo, and six grandchildren.

In a 2016 interview with the Turin daily La Stampa, Mr. Morandi said that after reading Richard Bach’s 1970 best seller, “Jonathan Livingston Seagull,” he “took flight,” discovering the sea. In 1989, he said, he decided that he was “tired of society and seeking a different life.” He bought a catamaran with some friends, with the idea of sailing to Polynesia.

To raise money, they scouted locations for charter cruises and came across Budelli. There they met Budelli’s caretaker, who had recently decided to leave. He offered them his job, and Mr. Morandi took it. He was paid at first, but he stayed on even after he was no longer receiving a salary; he then lived off his teacher’s pension. On rare occasions he returned to Modena for short holidays to visit his family.

At one point he read a study by the University of Sassari showing that Budelli’s flora and fauna were similar to those of the Polynesian islands he had once hoped to reach. “It was almost as though Budelli wanted me, made sure I got here, to the only beach in the whole Mediterranean Sea, which is almost similar in composition to the islands where I wanted to go,” he said in a 2016 interview with the photographer Claudio Muzzetto.

After Mr. Morandi’s death, Margherita Guerra, one of his many thousands of followers on social media, wrote: “Safe travels. Finally no one will ever be able to send you away from your beloved island.”

The Islamic State lauded the man who killed 14 people when he rammed a truck into a busy New Orleans street early on New Year’s Day, with the group claiming in a digital newsletter dated Thursday that its online propaganda had inspired the attack.

The group said the attacker who ran over pedestrians walking on Bourbon Street was “influenced by the discourse and messaging of the Islamic State.” but its message stopped short of claiming responsibility.

The newsletter bulletin, obtained by the Counter Extremism Project, a terrorism watchdog, appeared to mock the American news media for “holding its breath” while waiting for ISIS to claim the attack.

While the ISIS message did not directly mention New Orleans, it did describe an attack by an American man and referenced Meta glasses. The F.B.I. has said the attacker, Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, was wearing Meta glasses. and the Counter Extremism Project said the ISIS message was referring to the New Orleans attack.

The truck driven by Mr. Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Texas, carried an ISIS flag. Mr. Jabbar, who was killed in a shootout with New Orleans police, also left a chilling recorded message for his family, telling them he had joined the terrorist group.

The authorities have denied that Mr. Jabbar had active connections to the terrorist group, but the F.B.I. said he was “100 percent inspired by ISIS.”

It is unclear what online content Mr. Jabbar may have consumed before the attack, but ISIS produces weekly newsletters as part of a sophisticated media operation that keeps its far-flung factions connected.

Experts say this latest claim is unusual for the group.

“Unlike other attacks in the past, where ISIS has released a claim of responsibility for the attack, in this case, the group has stated that the attacker was inspired by ISIS propaganda messaging but does not claim they had a direct relationship,” said Joshua Fisher-Birch, a researcher at the Counter Extremism Project.

The ISIS statement’s emphasis on the importance of people who translate and share ISIS content, Mr. Fisher-Birch said, “speaks to the efforts to continue the spread of the group’s official messaging and unofficial propaganda efforts made by supporters.”

He added that the article included a clear call for future attacks during events and holidays.

Aaron Boxerman, Neil MacFarquhar and Alissa J. Rubin contributed reporting.

White House officials said on Friday that the truth behind the mysterious ailments known as Havana Syndrome was still unknown, contradicting a new intelligence assessment about what had befallen spies and diplomats for the last nine years.

On Friday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released an updated assessment about the ailments, one that largely reinforced its earlier conclusion that no foreign government was responsible for them. But the document, an update of the intelligence community’s conclusions in 2023, noted that two spy agencies had, at least subtly, shifted their positions.

The White House noted that shift in a briefing with reporters, while the Office of the Director of National Intelligence gave a separate briefing that differed sharply in emphasis and tone.

It was a profoundly odd note for the end of President Biden’s term. While President-elect Donald J. Trump regularly questioned spy agency findings during his first term, Mr. Biden’s White House has embraced the analytic work of its intelligence community. But on Friday, administration officials took a tack far different from that of their intelligence agencies.

The incidents and symptoms were first reported in Cuba in 2016 and were collectively referred to as Havana Syndrome. The ailments, which the government called Anomalous Health Incidents, or A.H.I.s, continued through the Trump administration and reached a high point in the first year of the Biden administration.

Spies and diplomats around the world reported hearing a noise or feeling a change in pressure before suffering from a range of symptoms, including migraines, dizziness and nausea. Some symptoms have continued for years and resembled those associated with traumatic brain injuries.

A senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive material, said the bottom line was that the mystery remained, noting that the government had to be open to the fact that “we don’t have all the answers.”

Administration officials emphasized that some agencies were now in dissent from the intelligence community’s overall conclusions. Sean Savett, the National Security Council spokesman, said the new assessment “includes a shift in key judgments by some intelligence components” and reinforces the importance of continuing research and investigation of the issues.

But an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive material, said the overall conclusion of a majority of agencies remained unchanged. They believe it is “very unlikely” that a foreign adversary is responsible for the ailments.

The intelligence official said sensitive intelligence, and not an absence of evidence, had led several agencies to that conclusion.

Officials have previously said that no communications or other information indicated that Russia, China, Cuba or another adversary had orchestrated the attacks. Some intelligence shows that foreign operatives were confused about Havana Syndrome allegations.

The two agencies that have shifted their position still believe it is unlikely that a foreign government was responsible. But they held open the possibly that a foreign government had developed a novel weapon or prototype to harm U.S. government personnel, although one of the agencies determined it was unlikely that such a device had been used.

Some people suffering from Havana Syndrome and their legal representatives criticized the new intelligence report’s conclusion and praised the White House for pressing for renewed investigation.

Mark Zaid, a lawyer who represents several people suffering from Havana Syndrome, said the intelligence agencies were continuing to “hide the truth.”

“That the White House statement differs from that of the intelligence community, an entity said to be controlled by the president, speaks volumes as to the lack of evidentiary integrity underlying any conclusion that a foreign government is not involved in A.H.I. attacks against Americans,” Mr. Zaid said.

Mark Lenzi, a State Department official who developed symptoms while serving in China and continues to be treated for Havana Syndrome ailments, said he believed that pulsed microwave radiation, a kind of directed energy device or weapon that could cause brain injuries, was responsible for the ailments.

“The White House is absolutely correct to be skeptical and dismissive about this biased and see-no-evil sham assessment,” Mr. Lenzi said.