Historical incidence of homosexual clergy In
Adomnan of Iona's biography of
Columba there is an anecdotal story about two priests with a strong attachment to one another "in a carnal way". One was Findchan, described as the founder of the monastery of "Scotic Artchain" in Tiree. The other priest was
Aed Dub.
Peter Damian, in the 11th century, wrote a book called the about homosexuality among the clergy in his own time period. He harshly condemned homosexual practice among the clergy. In 1102,
Anselm of Canterbury demanded that the punishment for homosexuality should be moderate because "this sin has been so public that hardly anyone has blushed for it, and many therefore have plunged into it without realising its gravity". It is argued that probably only in the 12th and 13th centuries that a mass condemnation of homosexuality began in Europe. This condemnation moderated considerably in the final decade of the twentieth century with the distinction now made by Catholic church authorities between homosexual orientation and homosexual activity—forbidding the latter while regarding the former as intrinsically disordered but not sinful in and of itself. In October 2015, on the day before the
second round of the Synod on the Family, a senior Polish priest working in the Vatican,
Krzysztof Charamsa, stated publicly in Italy's newspaper that he was gay and had a long-term partner. By doing so he had intended to draw attention to the Church's current attitude towards gay Catholics which he felt was regressive and damaging. In his resignation letter he thanked Pope Francis for some of his words and gestures towards the gay community; however, he also strongly criticized the institution of the Catholic Church for being "frequently violently homophobic" and "insensitive, unfair and brutal" towards people that are gay, noting the irony that he felt there were significant numbers of gay men active at all levels within the Church (including the cardinalate). He called for all statements from the Holy See that are offensive and violent against gay people to be withdrawn, citing Pope
Benedict XVI's signature of the 2005 document that forbids men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies from becoming priests as particularly "diabolical".
United States Studies find it difficult to quantify specific percentages of
Roman Catholic priests who have a homosexual orientation (either openly gay or closeted) in the United States. Nevertheless, several studies suggest that the incidence of
homosexuality in the
Roman Catholic priesthood is much higher than in the general population as a whole. Studies by James Wolf and by Richard Sipe from the early 1990s suggest that the percentage of priests in the Catholic Church who admitted to being gay or were in homosexual relationships was well above the national average for the country.
Elizabeth Stuart, a former convener of the Catholic Caucus of the Lesbian and Gay Christian movement claimed, "It has been estimated that at least 33 percent of all priests in the RC Church in the United States are homosexual." The
John Jay Report published in 2004 suggested that "homosexual men entered the seminaries in noticeable numbers from the late 1970s through the 1980s". Another report suggested that from the mid-1980s onwards, Catholic priests in the US were dying from
AIDS-related illnesses at a rate four times higher than that of the general population, with most of the cases contracted through gay sex, and the cause often concealed on their death certificates. A follow-up study the next year by the
Kansas City Star found the AIDS-related death rate among priests was "more than six times" the rate among the general population in the 14 states studied. The report gained widespread coverage in the media, but the study was criticized as being unrepresentative and having "little, if any, real value". Bishop
Thomas Gumbleton of the
Archdiocese of Detroit, has suggested that this was because, "Gay priests and heterosexual priests didn't know how to handle their sexuality, their sexual drive. And so they would handle it in ways that were not healthy." Additionally, the report suggested that some priests and behavioral experts believed the Church had "scared priests into silence by treating homosexual acts as an abomination and the breaking of celibacy vows as shameful". Gumbleton has gone on to argue that the Church should openly ordain gay men. A 2002
Los Angeles Times nationwide poll of 1,854 priests (responding) reported that: • 9% of priests identified themselves as gay, and • 6% identified themselves as "somewhere in between but more on the homosexual side". Asked if a "homosexual subculture" (defined as a "definite group of persons that has its own friendships, social gatherings and vocabulary") existed in their diocese or religious order: • 17% of the priests said "definitely", and • 27% said "probably"; • 53% of the priests who were ordained in the years 1982–2002 affirmed such a subculture existed in the seminary when they attended. Shortly after the poll was published, the Vatican ordered an
Apostolic visitor to examine American seminaries. The
visitation began in 2005, and the final report issued in 2008. The report spoke about "difficulties in the area of morality[...] Usually, but not exclusively, this meant homosexual behavior." Steps were subsequently taken to deal with the issue, including correcting a "laxity of discipline".
Germany In 2021 and 2022 several Roman Catholic priests outed themselves in action
OutInChurch.
Italy In March 2018 Cardinal
Crescenzio Sepe,
Archbishop of Naples, submitted a 1,200-page dossier to the Vatican that sought to identify 40 actively gay Catholic priests and seminarians across the country, after the list was compiled by a male escort called Francesco Mangiacapra. ==Homosexuality and the episcopacy==