text: "Is the answer, then, for the clergy to come out? Martin does not say. But he does call LGBT Catholics to greater compassion for their clerical leaders, whom, he says, "might be homosexual men who at a younger age were tortured by the same hateful attitudes that most LGBT people experienced growing up."
  
  According to his autobiography, Martin says he was about 25 when he began his quest for the priesthood.   And that he'd never been on a date with a girl.
  
  I'm all for compassion for gay people, but the time has come for honesty.   If priests are gay, they need to step up and admit it.   If men are ss attracted and seek a vocation, they too need to step up and admit it.    Let's be done with the coy sidestepping.    Let's end this game of pretending.    We've seen the results of pretending gay men are straight, or the notion that sexual orientation can be rectified with proper formation and prayer, or that sexual orientation doesn't really exist:  thousands of lives ruined by predators.