Screwed-up-ness
In The New York Times: ‘It Is Not a Closet. It Is a Cage.’ Gay Catholic Priests Speak Out
[...] The closet of the Roman Catholic Church hinges on an impossible contradiction. For years, church leaders have driven gay congregants away in shame and insisted that “homosexual tendencies” are “disordered.” And yet, thousands of the church’s priests are gay.
The stories of gay priests are unspoken, veiled from the outside world, known only to one another, if they are known at all.
Fewer than about 10 priests in the United States have dared to come out publicly. But gay men likely make up at least 30 to 40 percent of the American Catholic clergy, according to dozens of estimates from gay priests themselves and researchers. Some priests say the number is closer to 75 percent. One priest in Wisconsin said he assumed every priest is gay unless he knows for a fact he is not. A priest in Florida put it this way: “A third are gay, a third are straight, and a third don’t know what the hell they are.”
Two dozen gay priests and seminarians from 13 states shared intimate details of their lives in the Catholic closet with The New York Times over the past two months ....
The subject is in the news, with an upcoming Vatican event on clergy sex abuse of minors, with McCarrick's defrocking, with the revelation of priests sexually abusing nuns, and a new book coming out about the Vatican = Explosive new book lifts lid on gay priests in the Vatican .
It's hard to see how anyone can take seriously teachings of the Catholic church on social issues like LGBT rights or women's reproductive choices, given the church's own screwed-up-ness.
[...] The closet of the Roman Catholic Church hinges on an impossible contradiction. For years, church leaders have driven gay congregants away in shame and insisted that “homosexual tendencies” are “disordered.” And yet, thousands of the church’s priests are gay.
The stories of gay priests are unspoken, veiled from the outside world, known only to one another, if they are known at all.
Fewer than about 10 priests in the United States have dared to come out publicly. But gay men likely make up at least 30 to 40 percent of the American Catholic clergy, according to dozens of estimates from gay priests themselves and researchers. Some priests say the number is closer to 75 percent. One priest in Wisconsin said he assumed every priest is gay unless he knows for a fact he is not. A priest in Florida put it this way: “A third are gay, a third are straight, and a third don’t know what the hell they are.”
Two dozen gay priests and seminarians from 13 states shared intimate details of their lives in the Catholic closet with The New York Times over the past two months ....
The subject is in the news, with an upcoming Vatican event on clergy sex abuse of minors, with McCarrick's defrocking, with the revelation of priests sexually abusing nuns, and a new book coming out about the Vatican = Explosive new book lifts lid on gay priests in the Vatican .
It's hard to see how anyone can take seriously teachings of the Catholic church on social issues like LGBT rights or women's reproductive choices, given the church's own screwed-up-ness.
posted by crystal | 1:54 PM
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