No hate mail from me. I had several gay friends in San Francisco who struggled with celibacy and succeeded..their celibacy made them no less gay, as they still felt drawn to attractive men.
IMO, anyone who has intense urgings and yearnings to engage in sin and overcomes them is a strong and worthy person. Could be any sin and any man or woman. A lot of straight men are drawn to easy-to-get pornography. Some succeed in overcoming the compulsion.
A prominent theatre fellow I know in Los Angeles looked and sounded gay and gay men assumed that he was one of them. No. He had a gorgous and famous wife to whom he was entirely devoted, children whom he adored, and led an exemplary life. Though he seemed more gay than those famous Queer Eye guys, his heart was strong and his intentions noble.
Which brings up the subject of gays who "convert" with help from the (alleged) Christian community. Would their voices automatically change? Their gestures look less poofy? Or? If they renounce their gayness, would the Christian community accept them? I really do wonder.
But this is a thread about the Catholic Church. Will the Church accept celibate gay priests? Should it?
See...that's the point right there: you write, "their celibacy made them no less gay, as they still felt drawn to (other) men."
I think you are right when you refer to some human sexuality as "compulsion." In which case, for people with that aspect affiliated with their concept of sexuality, they are not likely to be successful as Priests, to be able to honor their vows. And should not be encouraged to enter or remain in the Priesthood.
I guess it can be said here that for among those who perceive sexuality as a compulsion, who experience uncontrollable urges to stimulate, act out and engage in sexual behaviors, they should not be admitted to the Priesthood or encouraged to remain.
And, in my experience, homosexuals refuse to reject homosexuality but reject the vows instead. I think it indicates a human persistence in even joining the Priesthood by most homosexuals and not a call from God, because for those people I have known who became Priests and led productive, happy lives as such, they all say that the vocation (a religious order) was a call from God and that they experience grace in respect to celibacy, that God's made the way possible for them and a joyous experience.
So, anyway, I return to the issue that the Priesthood is not for everyone and far from it. Those who are admitted to the seminaries and then on to the Priesthood as Catholics should be more selectively chosen and found to be chaste in the most complete sense of the word.
Since former 'priests' who also identify as homosexuals were responsible for nearly all the sexual abuse incidences that the Church had to contend with and still does, it's a good guess to assume without any more argument about this that it's not a good idea to admit homosexuals to the Priesthood. Pope Benedict surely has included other reasons but on a purely statistical sense alone, this decision works.
Excellent post. In answer to your question.. I don't know. You make a valid point. All of us have a major weakness, a sin that we are drawn too. For them it happens to be homosexuality, for Joe Blow, it may be drugs, etc.
I think if a man truly loves the Lord, and is celibate, then I personally don't see a problem with it. If a gay man has pedophile tendencies, that is an entirely different matter!!! He should not and never be ordained. But the pope brings up a good point, about being disordered. I really don't know. My heart goes out to gays who are struggling, what an awful life it must be.