Is it true that a lot of Catholic priests are gay?

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Well, truth be told, I don’t usually defend anyone out of not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings.
 
Zaccheus said:
First:
What do you mean by ‘a lot’?
Compared to the clergy of other denominations?
Compared to the general population?
Do you mean those afflicted with SSA who resist it, or only sexually active gays?
And what evidence are we depending upon?

Second:
The enemies of the Church will seize any club with which to beat her. This includes finding real problems and exaggerating them out of all proportion to the truth, on the principle that a lie is more plausible when there is a kernel of truth within it.
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Read one of the books written by Richard Sipe, who has studied this for decades and was one of the early (and ignored) voices warning the hierarchy during the years before the scandals broke.
 
otjm said:
The heck he doesn’t have a way of knowing. One has to be fairly well beyond naive to not pick up on the difference in cues heterosexuals give and those cues homosexuals give. Any individual priest may not have a clue about some of his fellow priests, but as for other fellow priests, it can be plainly clear thet there is same sex attraction.

And I say this having spoken with a number of priests whom I have known well. I can also say that as a lay person, that I can identify some of the priests who have SSA. I don’t have to ask; the tell-tales are obvious. 65 years ago my pastor had SSA, so it is not like I have not been around long enough to figure some things out without having someone else spell it out for me.
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“Gaydar” has proven to be completely fake. It’s a 50/50 chance of being right or wrong. Those who think they know better are just fooling themselves.
 
I disagree on one point. It is certainly appropriate to cover the subject in a counseling situation during early priesthood formation. Superiors must be aware of the individual predispositions of a seminarian or priest, in order to catch and intervene before his behavior becomes a public scandal. Same for women in formation.
 
Jerusha said:
Nor anyone else. A number of years ago, I was recently divorced, and working in education. I was happy when my annulment came through, although that might have been some fodder in the minds of non-Catholics. Later, I was pressured to declare my sexual preference. I declared myself not sexually active, and therefore it was none of their business. That sent the speculation off even further. 😡 Such situations amount to sexual harassment.
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I’m sorry that happened to you.

This is what the above poster, demanding that sexual orentation MUST be demanded of a person is aiming for, I think, an outing of priests the likes of which have not been seen since the scene in that Disney movie “Beauty and the Beast” where they go charging with pitchforks and torches.
 
R_H_Benson said:
I don’t see how that follows. One has a right to know if the man to whom he entrusts the care of his soul is a homosexual. I agree, no one needs to know about other parishioners.
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No. We must trust that the Church has done her due dilligence. Anything more is irrelevant. The studies that reported about gay in the priesthood were from 70 years ago. If one feels so out of sorts talking to someone they fear is gay, then simply find a man who’s been ordained in the past 30 years. We know that the screening has been good then.
R_H_Benson said:
What does the source matter if the question posed is a legitimate one?
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Ummmm…it’s a bad source and NOT a legitimate question.
R_H_Benson said:
Again, given the sexual abuse crisis within the Church and the constant clerical scandals, it is absolutely the right of the parishioner to know whether or not the man to whom he entrusts his soul is a homosexual.
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A good priest will “keep it in his pants” no matter what his orientation. You do not have a right to know anyone’s sexuality except for the person would be having sex with–in a conventional marriage. If the church has seen fit to ordain a man then you should not be questioning his facilities.
 
Xanthippe_Voorhees said:
No. We must trust that the Church has done her due dilligence. Anything more is irrelevant. The studies that reported about gay in the priesthood were from 70 years ago. If one feels so out of sorts talking to someone they fear is gay, then simply find a man who’s been ordained in the past 30 years. We know that the screening has been good then.
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Sorry, some of us know otherwise.
 
No one IS the sin, no more that Charlie IS thief, or Jane IS liar. This is not an attribute but an affliction. If it can be cleansed it is not a part of us. Only the devil IS these things.
 
Xanthippe_Voorhees said:
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otjm:
The heck he doesn’t have a way of knowing. One has to be fairly well beyond naive to not pick up on the difference in cues heterosexuals give and those cues homosexuals give. Any individual priest may not have a clue about some of his fellow priests, but as for other fellow priests, it can be plainly clear thet there is same sex attraction.

And I say this having spoken with a number of priests whom I have known well. I can also say that as a lay person, that I can identify some of the priests who have SSA. I don’t have to ask; the tell-tales are obvious. 65 years ago my pastor had SSA, so it is not like I have not been around long enough to figure some things out without having someone else spell it out for me.
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“Gaydar” has proven to be completely fake. It’s a 50/50 chance of being right or wrong. Those who think they know better are just fooling themselves.
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I had intended to respond to otjm but Xanthippe Voorhees already did that so I will merely say “Yes. Gaydar does not exist.”
 
You are confusing metaphor and analogy with reality. The Church isn’t really a woman, it doesn’t have a vagina, and can’t get married. The nuptial imagery is just that, imagery.

Do you believe that a gay priest is actually a priest or does their orientation invalidate the sacrament?
 
The nuptial imagery is very relevant. In any case, gays should never be admitted to the priesthood. Homosexuality is objectively disordered. Obviously this isn’t an issue of validity of ordination…but the fact remains, gays should never be admitted to the clergy.
 
But they have been admitted to the clergy, that’s a fact, and you seem to believe that they shouldn’t have been. That leads directly to my question about if you think their ordination was valid? It’s a question that is related to your point.
 
And your question was answered. And no, they should never have been ordained. Not everyone who is ever ordained to the clergy was ordained by the will of the Holy Spirit you know.
 
Oh, I know a few priests with SSA. The other priests tend to avoid them and say so or hint around that this is why they are not close friends. Or that they KNOW some have SSA and feel that they are not active so they have no problem with it.
As otjm stated, there are those whom people would very shocked to know about. But yeah, nobody’s business really.
NO one should ask a priest their orientation. When a person gets to be very friendly and trusted with their priest, they will answer this question with regard to “how many” “how common” and “how far up those with SSA are”.
YMMV depending on the place.
 
Isn’t that sort of a stereotype? Gay men enjoy the finer things in life while straight men are uncultured clods?
 
Zaccheus said:
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Xanthippe_Voorhees:
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otjm:
The heck he doesn’t have a way of knowing. One has to be fairly well beyond naive to not pick up on the difference in cues heterosexuals give and those cues homosexuals give. Any individual priest may not have a clue about some of his fellow priests, but as for other fellow priests, it can be plainly clear thet there is same sex attraction.

And I say this having spoken with a number of priests whom I have known well. I can also say that as a lay person, that I can identify some of the priests who have SSA. I don’t have to ask; the tell-tales are obvious. 65 years ago my pastor had SSA, so it is not like I have not been around long enough to figure some things out without having someone else spell it out for me.
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“Gaydar” has proven to be completely fake. It’s a 50/50 chance of being right or wrong. Those who think they know better are just fooling themselves.
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I had intended to respond to otjm but Xanthippe Voorhees already did that so I will merely say “Yes. Gaydar does not exist.”
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What’s truly unfortunate is people who INSIST they have “gaydar” and HOUND poor priests endlessly about it. I knew a very faithful priest who had a high voice and moved in what seemed to be a diminutive way. People CONSTANTLY called him gay or referred to him as “the gay priest”.

It was maddening.

He was not gay at all, he had suffered a major injury in a car accident as a teenager or college student. I don’t know the details but he was in a truck and his neck and upper torso made contact with the dashboard. His tracia collapsed and his shoulders and upper arms were injured. Once he recovered he had limited range of motion and had to re-learn to speak. While he was not in pain, he moves very carefully as he struggles with range of motion. When speaking, his voice is very high and soft…something he cannot control.

It got so bad that the Bishop came to the parish and told the people to stop their idle gossip and told them of his accident in his youth (with the priests permission).

Not all cases are as black and white as this…but assumptions are terrible, terrible things that can ruin lives.
 
I am not sure what stereotype you are referring to. And “the finer things in life” is so open a category as to have no meaning: “finer things” to one individual might mean a good Scotch, a cigar, and hunting for a trophy mule deer. If you are referring to fine arts - music, architecture, paintings, etc., being drawn to them is not an indicator that one is gay; but conversely, there appears to be a disproportionate number of gays engaged in the fine arts.
 
I am not the least interested in descending into an argument of whether or not there is “gaydar”. I am 71, and I have been around long enough to know that I have picked up cues, over time, of a number of individuals who have SSA. I have never said, and will not ever say that “I can tell” in fact, I have been very surprised that on a number of occasions I clearly did not pick up on the cues - but the individuals had SSA. That is not the subject of the discussion; the question was about how many priests are gay. Perhaps we can get back to the topic.

Frankly, I don’t care if someone has SSA or doesn’t, as it has nothing to do with how I interact with them, whether my interaction is business or church related. Two of my classmates in the seminary later “came out”. If you had asked me then, your question would have put my observations in context; but at the time (mid 1960’s) we didn’t have high school students “coming out”; and it was not a topic of discussion. Nor did I understand at the time that either of them had SSA; and from subsequent contact over time, it is clear that one of the two didn’t figure it out until several years of marriage to a woman.

Again, this has little or nothing to do directly with the OP’s question.
 
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is there a point to the OP’s question.

what tempts a person is not as important as to how a person responds to their temptations.

since there is no such thing as a “gay” (as the word is used in the current, popular nomenclature) person, the question is completely meaningless.

it is a mistake to honor it by addressing is as a serious question.
 
My guess would 4-5 out of 10. (nonpracticing and practicing)
 
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