The Roman Catholic Church Created Its Own Mess ....
Imagine being a young gay man growing up in the Roman Catholic Church of the 1950's, 60's or 70's. Upon graduation from high school, there was generally a family and church expectation that you would promptly marry, get a job and start pumping out as many babies as was humanly possible due to religious prohibitions on any kind of birth control or family planning.
"Are you married yet"? - "Are you married yet"? - "When are you getting married"? - "Why aren't you married yet"? - "Why aren't you getting married"? - "Are you married yet"?
That was the refrain that assaulted them from both family and community. Being single was not acceptable. Worse, being gay was condemned and was generally sufficient reason to be kicked out of both your family and your church.
A young Roman Catholic man was provided with only 2 possible life choices:
-bow to family/Church pressure to wed asap
-go into the priesthood
Over the decades (perhaps centuries) many, many young Catholic men chose the priesthood simply to end and avoid the relentless pressure to neither be single nor (gasp!) gay.
As a result, some priests were ordained who had no 'spiritual' calling but could retain family and church connection by entering the clergy. They had no intention of actually fulfilling their Church required vows of celibacy and chastity. They simply needed a way to end the religious pressure to not live a single or gay lifestyle.
Roman Catholic intolerance to any type of lifestyle other than 'one man married to one woman for life without any birth control' is the cause of the problem that plagues the modern Catholic Church. Gay men were forced into hiding ... unfortunately, many of them chose to hide in the ranks of the Roman Catholic priesthood where there is no expectation or pressure to get married .
The Roman Catholic Church did this to itself. I don't have a lot of sympathy for the Church's plight.
More .....
-'Homosexuality is a ticking timebomb for the Catholic Church': Explosive claim of former friar who says half of recruits are gay
