I think they are related, in the following way. Beginning in the 1960s, tens of thousands of Catholic priests "came out" by marrying a woman. Depending on how they did it, their departures were either (relatively) peaceful or quite stormy. Nonetheless, the longstanding success with the discipline of celibacy was severely harmed, and the number of active, healthy priests declined somewhat.
The same forces arising out of society's fascination with "sexual liberation" had their effect on homosexual priests, as well. But they could not "come out" as so many heterosexual priests did, and because they stayed behind when their heterosexual brother priests departed to marry, their RELATIVE numbers among practicing clergy increased.
The presence of healthy, heterosexual men in the rectories prior to 1965 was a factor that inhibited the emergence of a homosexual subculture, which really took off as the proportion of homosexuals in the clergy increased, as outlined above.
IF it had been possible to retain the married priests, I don't think things would have taken quite so bad a turn.
Why do you think the married Anglican and Episcopalian clergy didn’t stop those groups from actually openly accepting gay clergy? I mean among Catholics, the ones now most in favour of ending the discipline of celibacy are also the ones invariably most in favour of homosexuals. Try to find one catholic who thinks homosexual priests are cool but also really digs the discipline of celibacy.
Freegards
A good point taken.