Word: among
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...approve them as ministers because they will not commit themselves to sexual abstinence. The congregation, half gay, will have to ordain the women on its own, defying both the ordination rules of the 5.3 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and its policy against "homosexual erotic activity" among ministers...
Just how common is homosexuality among the Catholic clergy? A September Washington Post article cited the figures of a Baltimore therapist, A.W. Richard Sipe, who, after 25 years of interviewing 1,000 priests, concluded that 20% of the nation's Catholic clergy are gay, half of those sexually active. Sipe also estimates that 4% of priests are sexually attracted to adolescents and an additional 2% to children under 13. Responding last month, David Brinkmoeller, director of the U.S. bishops' secretariat on priestly life, questioned the validity of the figures...
...anthology, Homosexuality in the Priesthood and the Religious Life (Crossroad; $14.95), Salvatorian priest Robert Nugent, who has worked among gay Catholics for twelve years, says estimates on the numbers of homosexual clergy range from "the most conservative 10% to a more reasonable 20%" or higher. He notes that a national survey by vocation directors in men's religious orders showed that, from 1981 to 1985, 5% of candidates accepted for the priesthood identified themselves to the church as being homosexual in orientation...
...another recently published anthology, Gay Priests (Harper & Row; $17.95), University of Kentucky researcher James G. Wolf reports the results of a survey conducted among a loose network of homosexual clergy who sent the questionnaires to one another. The 101 respondents, obviously not a representative sample, typically estimated the extent of clerical homosexuality at 40% to 60%. Though those numbers are of little scientific value, the participating priests offered interesting revelations on their own views. Only one of them said he had abstained entirely from sex once he became a priest; 37% reported their sexual activity to be frequent since ordination...
...homosexual proclivities as long as they promise to remain celibate and support church teaching on the topic. But in practice, the barrier between homosexual orientation and homosexual activity is difficult to maintain. No doubt aware of that, the Vatican issued a sharp decree in October 1986 that is known among enraged gay Catholics as the "Halloween letter." The text warned that homosexual inclination tends "toward an intrinsic moral evil" and "must be seen as an objective disorder...