...The president of the US bishops' conference, Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, proclaimed:"celibate homosexuals" ?!?"There are many wonderful and excellent priests in the Church who have a gay orientation, are chaste and celibate, and are very effective ministers of the Gospel."If Bishop Skylstad's words seemed to prepare readers for a policy that would restrict the priesthood to celibate homosexuals, he served notice that any more aggressive stance would meet heavy resistance....
Isn't that like cigarette smokers who do not smoke?If one does not have sex, does it really matter WHO one does not have sex with?
First you need to define terms. Celebate means not getting married, chaste means not having sex, of course celebate has come to mean both but in Church definitions I think it is still seperate. What a number of seminarians were taught back in the 70s was that you could practice homosexual sex and remain celebate. It was called the 3rd Way or some such thing. I knew a young man who was taught this by a priest. He was brought into the life-style by a priest! I was not sure at the time if the priest was a member of the order he was in formation with or not, and my friend was very careful not to tell me the priest's name. Not long after this he was kicked out of the seminary and years later finally left the Church altogether. Unfortunately, many do not leave when they can't accept the teaching of the Church but stay and try to "reform" the Church.
Sometimes Same-Sex Attraction is accompanied by a deep revulsion towards the marital act. I don't see how such men could be fit for the priesthood, since they have a revulsion for the consumating act of the sacrament of matrimony. Such men could very well be severely mentally compromised in teaching about Christian marriage or encouraging others towards it.