- Feb 5, 2002
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A new study says the “gay priest” panic may be a relic of the past
An eleventh-century Benedictine bishop believed there were so many gay men in the Catholic priesthood that he wrote a diatribe against his bretheren. “The Book of Gommorrah,” as he called it, was part condemnation, part sex catalogue. His call for reform went as high as then-pope Benedict IX, whom he named the chief “devil” behind acts Catholics still deem mortal sin.
A thousand years later, Catholics are still grappling with what place—if any—gay men can have in the clergy. In January, the Vatican issued new guidelines, applicable only to Italian priests, that say same-sex orientation cannot bar candidates from the priesthood as long as they remain celibate. And scholars are still trying to reckon the number of gay men within the all-male Catholic clergy, with estimates in the last fifty years ranging from as low as 10 percent to as high as 60. In 2000, Donald B. Cozzens, a Roman Catholic priest, wrote in The Changing Face of the Priesthood that 58 percent of clergy were gay, with the number even higher for young priests.
While news like this often re-starts old debates about the viability of celibacy and an all-male priesthood, it can also function as proxy for disagreements about sexuality in the church, with many conservatives worrying that gay priests are more likely to break their vows, or even engage in harmful or predatory behavior. Liberals, by contrast, tend to see panic around gay priests as tied to panic around sexual incontinence more generally.
Continued below.
arcmag.org
An eleventh-century Benedictine bishop believed there were so many gay men in the Catholic priesthood that he wrote a diatribe against his bretheren. “The Book of Gommorrah,” as he called it, was part condemnation, part sex catalogue. His call for reform went as high as then-pope Benedict IX, whom he named the chief “devil” behind acts Catholics still deem mortal sin.
A thousand years later, Catholics are still grappling with what place—if any—gay men can have in the clergy. In January, the Vatican issued new guidelines, applicable only to Italian priests, that say same-sex orientation cannot bar candidates from the priesthood as long as they remain celibate. And scholars are still trying to reckon the number of gay men within the all-male Catholic clergy, with estimates in the last fifty years ranging from as low as 10 percent to as high as 60. In 2000, Donald B. Cozzens, a Roman Catholic priest, wrote in The Changing Face of the Priesthood that 58 percent of clergy were gay, with the number even higher for young priests.
While news like this often re-starts old debates about the viability of celibacy and an all-male priesthood, it can also function as proxy for disagreements about sexuality in the church, with many conservatives worrying that gay priests are more likely to break their vows, or even engage in harmful or predatory behavior. Liberals, by contrast, tend to see panic around gay priests as tied to panic around sexual incontinence more generally.
Continued below.
The Disappearance of the Closeted Clergyman | ARC: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera
An eleventh-century Benedictine bishop believed there were so many gay men in the Catholic priesthood that he wrote a diatribe against his bretheren. “The Book of Gommorrah,” as he called it, was part condemnation, part sex catalogue. His call for reform went as high as then-pope Benedict IX...
arcmag.org
