RE "Whether gay or straight, if you are going to be a priest at the present time, you have to be celibate."
Don't the 200 married priests who were formerly ministers in other denominations or Eastern Rite priests count?
The requirement that Latin rite priests who are not married at the time of their ordination remain celibate is outdated, unfair, and illogical for a Church where:
- From 1980 to 2012, the ratio of Catholics per priest increased globally, with the number of Catholics per priest going from 1,895 to 3,126.
- In 2014, 49,153 parishes in the world had no resident priest pastor.
- Between 1970 and 2012, the number of priests declined from 419,728 to 414,313 while the global Catholic population doubled