Catholic bishop says it's OK for priests to be homosexual...since when?

On 5 January 20/20 ran this story about Catholic priests and AIDS. While I was familiar with most of the material presented, I was somewhat surprised by the comments made by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit. Bishop Gumbleton implied that the Catholic church accepted the priesthood of celibate homosexuals.

Two questions. Firstly, is this the official position of the Catholic church? (Gumbleton was described in the program as a “liberal theologian,” which in my experience usually means “someone who doesn’t agree with the mainstream but isn’t far enough off-beam for the authorities to silence.”) Secondly, if it is offical policy, how long has it been so? I can’t imagine that it has been changed in the recent past, as I would be surprised if the typically conservative current pope would have done so.

Technically, being a homosexual is not a sin, just acting on those urges. A celibate priest’s sexual orientation does not matter.

The Church has always believed that you love the sinner even if you hate the sin. I think this is a great example of the true Church.

Well I’m not sure what this has to do with the OP. As Badtz Maru pointed out, RCC teaching does NOT consider homosexual orientation to be a sin. Whether one agrees or not with church teaching on this “issue”, I don’t think that what Gumbleton said cold be construed as controversial with respect to RCC teaching.

From an RCC point of view, there is no sin involved…so nothing to “hate” here…

The Catholic church accepts that those who have taken a vow of celibacy may yet have sexual urges. As long as they do not act on those urges, there is no breaking of the vow. Heterosexual vs. homesexual is irrelevant.

Everyone else has pretty much covered it, but I figured it would be helpful to post what the Catechism has to say:

And to point out some fairness, this section comes after it says that “All the baptized are called to chastity.
Lust, masturbation, pornography, sex outside of marriage, prostitution and rape are all spoken against first (although more briefly). So, the position seems to be that sex with your spouse is good and wonderful; sex with anyone else, including yourself, or even thinking about sex with anyone else, is bad.

pinqy