As I understand it, the Roman Catholic Church officially teaches that all homosexual acts in all contexts are “gravely disordered” and sinful. I believe that this teaching is gravely erroneous. I can understand how some gay men might wish to enter the priesthood and try either to suppress their homosexual orientation in order to better conform to the Church’s teachings, or to influence the Church from within to change its teachings to accept their orientation. However, I believe that both approaches are misguided.
The former is misguided because it’s psychologically unhealthy to suppress such a fundamental aspect of one’s nature when there is no sound reason for doing so. The latter is misguided because it seems futile. The Church appears extremely unlikely to change its perspective on homosexuality within the next century or millennium, because that perspective appears to be symptomatic of a hopelessly archaic and broader general understanding of human psychology and of the nature and purpose of human sexuality to which the Church seems determined to cling indefinitely no matter what good modern evidence and reason is uncovered to prompt reconsideration of its position.
Thus, if a gay man should not injure himself trying or pretending to be what he is not or trying or pretending not to be what he is, and he cannot reasonably expect to become an openly gay priest and compel the Church to approve of homosexuality, why would he wish to become an official representative of such a flawed institution with such deeply ingrained, flawed, and harmful teachings on human psychology and sexuality?
For that matter, why would anyone who understands how profoundly defective these teachings are and how defective the Church is as an institution for stubbornly embracing them wish to be any part of the Church whatsoever, whether in the clergy or the laity?
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