If you want less gay priests in the catholic church, there is a very easy fix to this. Let priests marry women. Problem solved, the end.
By the way, it's not uncatholic to let priests marry. Up until the 1100s, Catholic Priests could marry. There's absolutely no literature in the Bible that bars it. In fact some of the Apostles had wives. If the Apostles could take wives, what makes Catholic Priests think they are holier than thou by banning their members from taking wives?
The problem with banning Priests from taking wives is that gay men who want to hide the fact they are gay, join the priesthood. It's the perfect cover for gay guys. As a priest you have a rule banning marriage to women so all suspicion around you being gay is deflected as your devotion to God. This is a huge incentive for gay people to become priests. If you allowed priests to marry women, you would singlehandedly remove the effective cover for gay men. People would again start suspecting if the priest is gay because he hasn't taken a wife.
Furthermore, you will increase the quality of your priests if you allow them to marry also. Most men with good genetics marry. Yes, Jesus was obviously an exception but no man will ever come close to Jesus, not even Catholic Priests. In fact, most men who are like Jesus likely marry rather than not. Many good men specifically choose not to become a priest because they'd rather marry. You can still be close to Jesus and go to heaven without becoming a priest. There's nothing special about being a priest so why would any man sacrifice the ability to be married just to be a priest? Only extremely power hungry men or gays would.
The current rule to ban priests from marriage leads to low quality priests. Remove the rule.
There are pros and cons to married priests. The Roman church (most of Catholicism) only holds priestly celibacy to be discipline and can change it. One of the largest cons to priestly celibacy is the hiding of gays in the priesthood, as you mentioned. But between the vocations crisis generally, and the amount of divided priorities a married priest has (family vs parish, marital relations vs Divine Liturgy, availability), I don't think it's wise for Rome to change its discipline. An increase of clerical Brothers and Deacons would definitely help offset the day-to-day minutiae and allow the priest to focus on holiness but we're far from that point. The key here would not be to admit so many gays to seminary but since the hierarchy of the Church is already compromised, it's not going to happen (and reform won't follow) for a few generations.
If you want less gay priests in the catholic church, there is a very easy fix to this. Let priests marry women. Problem solved, the end.
By the way, it's not uncatholic to let priests marry. Up until the 1100s, Catholic Priests could marry. There's absolutely no literature in the Bible that bars it. In fact some of the Apostles had wives. If the Apostles could take wives, what makes Catholic Priests think they are holier than thou by banning their members from taking wives?
The problem with banning Priests from taking wives is that gay men who want to hide the fact they are gay, join the priesthood. It's the perfect cover for gay guys. As a priest you have a rule banning marriage to women so all suspicion around you being gay is deflected as your devotion to God. This is a huge incentive for gay people to become priests. If you allowed priests to marry women, you would singlehandedly remove the effective cover for gay men. People would again start suspecting if the priest is gay because he hasn't taken a wife.
Furthermore, you will increase the quality of your priests if you allow them to marry also. Most men with good genetics marry. Yes, Jesus was obviously an exception but no man will ever come close to Jesus, not even Catholic Priests. In fact, most men who are like Jesus likely marry rather than not. Many good men specifically choose not to become a priest because they'd rather marry. You can still be close to Jesus and go to heaven without becoming a priest. There's nothing special about being a priest so why would any man sacrifice the ability to be married just to be a priest? Only extremely power hungry men or gays would.
The current rule to ban priests from marriage leads to low quality priests. Remove the rule.
There are pros and cons to married priests. The Roman church (most of Catholicism) only holds priestly celibacy to be discipline and can change it. One of the largest cons to priestly celibacy is the hiding of gays in the priesthood, as you mentioned. But between the vocations crisis generally, and the amount of divided priorities a married priest has (family vs parish, marital relations vs Divine Liturgy, availability), I don't think it's wise for Rome to change its discipline. An increase of clerical Brothers and Deacons would definitely help offset the day-to-day minutiae and allow the priest to focus on holiness but we're far from that point. The key here would not be to admit so many gays to seminary but since the hierarchy of the Church is already compromised, it's not going to happen (and reform won't follow) for a few generations.