Allegation that 30 percent of all Catholic priests are homosexual

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Liberian

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

My college-age daughter is off on a summer program and just telephoned. She said that one of her suite-mates (who is evidently Protestant of one form or another) told her that thirty percent of all Catholic priests are homosexual. According to the suitemate, her father did some research and compiled some statistics.

Does anybody have any solid research on the subject that my daugher could use to refute this scurrilous claim?
  • Liberian
 
That sounds ridiculously high. I don’t see how it could be true, but I haven’t done any research on it. Sounds like something Chick Publications would come out with, though.
 
I would have your daughter asked for his research. What sources did he use and exactly how did he compile this information? People can claim anything. Carrie
 
30% according to whom???One where is the research,are the researchers biased,under what context was the research done,and were all the priest in America asked or did they go to a certain diosese and ask?
 
Disraeli is the one who said. “There are 3 kinds of lies.
Lies,
Damned lies,
and statistics.”

And 100% of n-C preachers are preaching less than the fullness of truth…even ABOUT the Catholic Church.
Pax tecum,
 
A real Priest is living a chaste life, with vows of celibacy, does it really matter?
 
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kage_ar:
A real Priest is living a chaste life, with vows of celibacy, does it really matter?
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Very good.

The answer to this person is that if 100% were homosexual, that does not make them sinners.

Our God is merciful. He hates sin, not sinners. Do they not teach that in protestant school anymore?

I understand that protestants have a very high divorce rate. If your friend wanted to talk about what Jesus found truly repulsive, now you have a topic.

I have zero tolerance for Catholic bashers, so if I come off hard, it is not to attack another, but to defend my Lord. Remember, in mass we pray to Christ to look not on our sins but on the faith of your Church. It is His Church.
 
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Liberian:
Does anybody have any solid research on the subject that my daugher could use to refute this scurrilous claim?
  • Liberian
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How do we know the claim is false? It may very well be accurate, or too low a percentage. That in no way invalidates the faith.
 
Whether a priest is heterosexual or not is, immaterial and irrelavent.

They make vows of chastity. It’s a mote point because they can not engage in sex anyway. They can not be sexually active with either sex.

I question both the claimed results and the motives behind such a survey. And I think the motives behind making such a survey are much more scurrelous than the so called controversial findings.
wc
 
This kind of information is not public, so in short, her father would have no way to compile any statistics.
 
How can a problem be addressed if we refuse to identify it? Same sex attraction is a moral disorder and a medical disorder. I am not saying we need to have a witch hunt, but simply saying that because celibacy is the rule we have nothing to worry about really defies common experience and the last 5 or so years of abuse scandal.

IMO, there are too many SSA folks in positions in the priesthood and chanceries.Dealing with this problem should not include attacking people who may or may not have accurate information, but to takle it head on and address why this has happended. The Vatican is starting an insepection of US seminaries very soon. Are they doing this because they think there are very few homosexuals in the priesthood?
 
There are more homosexual priests that commonly acknowledged, but a third? A bit high.

There are definitely homosexual priests, however. I worked as a cabdriver a number of years ago and used to pick up (in the cab!) at least one known priest at a local gay bathhouse a few times so I know these things do happen but only occasionally.

The church doesn’t tabulate stats on the matter, the seal of confession prevents the accumulation of data, but I personally suspect its a semi-rare situation.

30% is way off.
 
Grace & Peace!

At the risk of sounding controversial, I’m surprised that the projected number is that low. When one considers that the church teaches that gay men are called to celibacy, as are priests, I would not doubt that a large number of gay catholic men wishing to remain faithful to the magesterium would seriously consider the priesthood–it is as if they were preselected for it.

Regardless, though, I agree with those above who wrote that the sexual orientation of a priest is immaterial to his duties. It may not be immaterial to him (he may struggle, regardless of his urges, and his struggle can be offered to Christ), but it has nothing to do with his office. It is only of import to those who misguidedly believe that homosexual people are, because of their orientation, more disposed to vice than their heterosexual counterparts. Thankfully, though, human nature is not more fallen in gay people than in straight.

–Mark

Deo Gratias!
 
. It’s a mote point because they can not engage in sex anyway. They can not be sexually active with either sex.
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They can indeed be sexually active, they just aren’t permitted to do it. No one is without sin you know.

Some do, even though its clearly against the rules as you point out.
 
Grace & Peace!
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fix:
Same sex attraction is a moral disorder and a medical disorder.
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Fix, I think this position is in disagreement with the church–to be gay is not to be intrinsically disordered–homosexual activities are considered disordered. If we believe that homosexuality is a moral disorder, (or any more morally disordered that human nature already was by the fall), how do we refrain from passing moral judgment on those who suffer moral disorders? It’s easy not to pass judgment on those who suffer disease–one would not say that someone who has a cold is evil–a cold is not evil. But to say, in effect, that evil clings more readily to the souls of some than of others (because of moral disorder) is very close to passing moral judgment on them. It’s a slippery slope. And the argument that it (same sex attraction in itself) is a medical disorder is flimsy at best.

There is nothing intrinsically more “wrong” with homosexuals than with heterosexuals. To assume that there is seems to me to smack of some latent Donatism.

–Mark

Deo Gratias!
 
Grace & Peace!

buffalo said:
Read Goodbye, Good Men

The real truth behind the current scandal rocking the Catholic Church…
Click to expand...

I wouldn’t just blame the liberals. The conservative focus on “family values” of late (coupled with a decline in the prestige of the church since the “Enlightenment”) I think has convinced many, consciously or unconsciously, that celibacy is undesirable. It is a radical choice these days–and nothing in secular society is supportive of it. Liberal ideas may have led to the development of an attractive sexual libertinism, but conservative ideas have countered only with “abstinence until marriage,” marriage being represented as the ideal state for all–you can abstain until you are married. Celibacy is considered, in either scenario, an abnormal choice.

–Mark

Deo Gratias!
 
I think if you read the book you will see what he is saying.

“Abstinence until marriage” is not a recent conservative brainchild. Catholic teaching about chasitity of which “abstinence until marriage” is just one part has been constant.
 
Grace & Peace!
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buffalo:
I think if you read the book you will see what he is saying.

“Abstinence until marriage” is not a recent conservative brainchild. Catholic teaching about chasitity of which “abstinence until marriage” is just one part has been constant.
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Sure, buffalo–but secular society and conservative fundamentalist Christianity do not value celibacy (to my knowledge). In a catholic society, celibacy is part of the fabric of the whole–it’s a noble sacrifice. But in a society in which there is no priesthood, which is not catholic, such things look like foolishness or abnormality.

–Mark

Deo Gratias!
 
It’s Catholic-bashing, of course, but it may be true too. I think the number may be higher and I think it has been consistent through time and not something new. The homosexual has always been with us, that’s nothing new. Why wouldn’t gay men be attracted to the Church, especially if there were no sanctioned outlet for their desires? It’s just that the 1960s and the gay liberation movement encouraged men to act out, “express” themselves, go for it, live for today and all that, as the culture told everyone else too. Those are the years that the locust hath eaten, and what an awful mess we have now.
 
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