How does someone even find OUT what a priest's sexual orientation IS ?
Uhhh .. s'cuse me father .. d'ya like girls .. or boys?
“How can a man that has taken a vow of chastity even HAVE a sexual orientation?”
That’s kind of silly don’t you think? Did you think that one through?
I for one, knew well before I first had sex that I was attracted to girls. Probably by the age of eight or nine...
Being chaste as nothing to do with sexual orientation. It is about not indulging in sinful sexual activities be they "hetero-" or "homo-" sexual.
But since homosexual attraction indicates a disordered mental state (despite what current psychological opinion says), those with such proclivities have a harder time suppressing them than they do normal sexual urges.
The big mistake the RCC made was to puting credence in the psychologists position and accepting the "if they're celibate, what difference does it make" notion(s) instead of sticking to seminary policies and practices that had worked for hundreds of years.
Indications are that they have learned from their very serious mistakes and are re-introducing such policies as fast as internal "politics" will allow them to. The re-introduction is hampered by the fact that some homosexuals have reached positions in the heirachy (i.e. bishops--often not known to be queer) are stalling the efforts.
"How does someone even find OUT what a priest's sexual orientation IS ?Uhhh .. s'cuse me father .. d'ya like girls .. or boys?"
Pretty much, yes. These kinds of discernment questions "used" to be part of all RCC seminary programs, and if the answer was "boys"........!poof! Bye-bye.
Just because one has taken a vow of chastity does not mean that individual ceases to feel attraction. It just means that person has promised not to act on it.
If by "orientation" you mean "sexual attraction," then yes, I suppose everyone has a sexual orientation, at least between the ages of 13 and 83, with some leeway at both ends of the timeline.
Attraction is an involuntary thing, sometimes good (as in, strong attraction to your spouse or spouse-to-be) and sometimes bad (as in, strong attraction to somebody else's); if it constitutes a temptation to sin, one should try to minimize it, as in the duty to "avoid the near occasions of sin."
"How does someone even find OUT what a priest's sexual orientation IS?"
Seminarians go through pretty serious psychological scrutiny and interviews (with them as well as often their family and friends) before being considered for ordination. Sexual history and orientation would come up here.
As for someone who's already ordained: I don't know. You could ask. But unless you had some serious reason to ask, it's none of your business.
That’s exactly the point. If one is CELIBATE, as a priest is supposed to be, then how does he know he’s queer? Going back hundreds of years tho, the definition of celibacy got warped into meaning “no sex with women”. Pounding kids and brothers -of-the-cloth didn’t count. And where does this papal genius get “—not for me to judge”? Ain’t he the freeekin’ pope? and isn’t he expected to make judgement calls on matters of morality. If I were a catholic I’d want my money back for this guy. As it is, it looks like we’ll be watching another continuous Obamuzzie style fundraiser where he just can’t work up the nerve to hold any sinners to the fire.
Allow me to rephrase the question:
How can a man that has taken a vow of chastity EVEN BE SUBJECT TO the temptations of this world?
When the question is phrased this way, the answer becomes evident. A good application of this answer is Henri Nouwen.