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Studies into the incidence of homosexuality in the Roman Catholic priesthood are contested and controversial. The teaching of the Church, as stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is that homosexual persons, including priests, "must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity", and that "every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided". Regarding gay sexual activity, however, the Catechism states that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered", and that "under no circumstances can they be approved". These prohibitions apply especially to priests, as the canon law of the Catholic Church requires that clerics "observe perfect and perpetual continence for the sake of the kingdom of heaven". For this reason, priests in Latin Catholic dioceses make vows of celibacy at their ordination, thereby agreeing to remain unmarried and abstinent throughout their lives. The Church distinguishes between "homosexual attractions", which are not considered sinful, and "homosexual acts", which are considered sinful.〔 In 2005 a senior Vatican official confirmed a report in ''Corriere della Sera'' that gay men who are closeted and chaste (abstain from sexual activity) for at least three years will still be allowed to become priests, and others have argued that the Church would be unable to enforce an outright ban.〔 ==Attitude toward homosexuality in the Church== In 1102, Saint 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 was probably only in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that a mass condemnation of homosexuality began in Europe. This 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 tolerating the existence of the former.〔> There has been some support for homosexual priests expressed by members of the clergy, including by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of the Archdiocese of Detroit, who has argued for the ordination of gay men. "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." Furthermore, the report suggested that some priests and behavioral experts believe the church had "scared priests into silence by treating homosexual acts as an abomination and the breaking of celibacy vows as shameful". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Homosexuality and Roman Catholic priests」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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