Gay priest

Hey Anacreon--I thought that dflync01 meant that pedophilia was another side effect of the structure of the priesthood that was not connected to homosexuality. I suppose he might be a bigot but I'd give her the benefit of the doubt.

In any case, there are an astonishing number of gay priests. I recently finished an MA program at a liberal Catholic school that had about 200 seminarians and 200 people who weren't going to be ordained. Some of the gay seminarians talked about starting a support group, but it never came off because almost all the seminarians either identified themselves as gay, or were latent and very touchy about the subject.

It's worth saying that all the people I knew were planning on joining religious orders and were serious about celibacy, which I find amazing. Orders are segregated by gender is to make it easier for men and women to be celibate; I can't imagine living a celibate life where I'm part of a community of people who I find attractive.

This actually probably made a lot of sense in Medieval Europe, as joining a religious order was the only way to avoid the expectation of marriage (to someone of the opposite gender). As such, they could remain part of the society without compromising their sexuality. (At least not more than their heterosexual counterparts.) by the same token, the Roman Catholic church is one of the few not dealing with homosexual ministers. Since no member of the clergy should be sexually active, (and the church doesn't care to whom you are attracted) a homosexual priest causes no problems. (IANTP) Didn't you ever think it was strange that priests were supposed to be sensitive and caring when other guys weren't?