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Thanks for the well written and thought out comments.

Originally Posted by MandoMan

“ The practice of priestly celibacy began to spread in the Western Church in the early Middle Ages. In the early 11th century Pope Benedict VIII responded to the decline in priestly morality by issuing a rule prohibiting the children of priests from inheriting property. A few decades later Pope Gregory VII issued a decree against clerical marriages. The Church was a thousand years old before it definitively took a stand in favor of celibacy in the twelfth century at the Second Lateran Council held in 1139, when a rule was approved forbidding priests to marry. In 1563, the Council of Trent reaffirmed the tradition of celibacy.”
When Did the Catholic Church Decide Priests Should Be Celibate? | History News
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My dad, a hospital chaplain, taught chaplaincy to young men preparing to become Catholic priests at St. Thomas Seminary in Denver for a couple decades. He told me, forty years ago, that he estimated that a third of the seminarians were homosexual. (This does NOT mean they were pedophiles, though perhaps some might have been.) So the problem is not just in Germany. It is here, as well. Bear in mind that if a priest is celibate, it doesn’t really matter what his sexual orientation is, as he isn’t using it. Paul wrote, “It is better to marry than to burn [with lust].” It’s no harder or easier for a homosexual man to be celibate than for a heterosexual man to be celibate. There’s an excellent chance that your favorite priest is a homosexual who keeps his mouth shut. Maybe he gives in to his lusts, and maybe he doesn’t. If he doesn’t, then there is no sin.

In the Middle Ages and for centuries before then, monks and nuns were expected to abstain from marriage and sex. Monasteries provided a community where men could live fulfilling lives without having to marry. The same goes for nunneries. Similarly, monastic life provided a safe harbor for men who were gentle, artistic, delicate, or uninterested in warfare. Some of these men were homosexual, but most probably weren’t. There was both homosexual and heterosexual sex occurring in some monasteries, but no marriage, and the sex was not condoned. Most monks were not ordained as priests, but most monasteries had at least one or two priests living there. Those priests were also unmarried.

It was different with parish priests. Until 1139, many parish priests in England had wives and children. After all, being a good parish priest was hard work, and a priest needed someone to cook and keep house for him. If he had a wife with whom he could have sex, he was less tempted by the women in his parish. However, it was natural for a priest to want to have land or money to leave to his wife and children when he died. The Vatican came to realize that it was losing out on a lot of income by letting priests leave their money and land to their dependents instead of leaving it to the church. So the Vatican forbade priests to marry and required married priest to set aside their wives and children. This meant that lots of women and children were left without a means of support. Priests hired housekeepers, some of whom provided “benefits” as well. Some took mistresses who bore them illegitimate children.

I find it sad that so many priests spend their lives struggling with temptations and living a lie, despite feeling called to serve as priests. I can understand these German priests wanting to have their sexual orientations accepted so they don’t always feel like they must keep their true selves hidden.