How many Catholic priests are homosexuals? What per cent?
By that I don't mean practicing homosexuals, but anyone with
that orientation whether they act on their feelings or not.
It would make sense for a homosexual Catholic to become a
priest if he thinks it is a sin to be homosexual.
My guess that there are at least as many as the general population.
A while ago there was this movie "Priest" (1994) about a priest
struggling with his homosexual feelings while trying to maintain
a conservative "party" line.
I have recently seen the estimate 1/3 regarding the US. I can't remember the source (except that it was a Jesuit priest with a long experience teaching at a seminar). I think it is obvious that the number would be much higher than in the general population.
See also this one:
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/07/29/catholic-priests-its-empirical-fact-that-many-clergy-are-gayIn "The Changing Face of the Priesthood" (2000) Rev. Donald B. Cozzens claimed the priesthood was increasingly becoming a gay profession in the US. Cozzens estimated that as much as 58% of priests are gay, and that percentages were higher for younger priests. The article says sociological estimates varies from 10% to 60%. So no consensus.
But as Father Gary Meier, gay Catholic priest from St. Louis, puts it:
"30 percent are gay, 30 percent are straight, and 30 percent are in denial."
(probably leaving 10% asexual, which also sounds about right IMO)
There is a good bibliography of pre-2000 research on the topic here:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/lgbcathbib9.asp(it's a shame they haven't updated it)
