Some uncomfortable truths about the Catholic Church (and I am not making any judgments on these claims, just noting them)

1. A large number of clergy do not practice celibacy (see Richard Sipe's research)

2. A number of Catholic clergy and bishops are gay, albeit closeted.

3. Some of the most anti-LGBT voices in the Church (even historically) have been homosexuals themselves, who use theological/social conservatism as a mask to cover their own orientation/behavior

4. Homosexuality in the Catholic priesthood is nothing new, it's just more exposed.

5. Clerical sex abuse used to be seen as "idle speculation", and those who spoke out against corrupt clergy & bishops were coerced through psychological & spiritual abuse to maintain their silence.

6. Clerical sex abuse is nothing new, and it existed even in Christendom.

7. The double-lives of clergy are not limited to homosexuality. As Richard Sipe & other note, the *majority* of priests who break celibacy do so through masturbation & pornography, visiting massage parlors, having girlfriends/affairs with married women.

(And before you say it, yes, masturbation & hooking up are indeed violations of priestly celibacy, as celibacy is not simply "no marriage", but also includes ALL sexual and romantic activity (Sipe): see Msgr. Rossetti on clerical "white marriages" in his book, "Joy of Priesthood"

8. The "lavender mafia" in the Church are not simply liberal Catholics who are openly gay. It also includes some "conservative" clergy and bishops who, despite a long record of "conservative" teaching (Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Cardinal Spellman, etc.), were closeted homosexuals.

9. The existence (and possible prevalence) of unchaste priests (whether homosexual or heterosexual) does not affect the indefectibility of the Church, but it DOES mean that the Church needs a serious reckoning, a reform of its priesthood, and more transparency in its structures.

10. Therefore, when faced with uncomfortable truths about the Church (just like the ones demonstrated by the testimony of abuse victims), the Church cannot afford to double-down on denial or pious platitudes. The key for Church reform is honesty, repentance, and transformation.

Part of the reason these truths are "uncomfortable" is because they force us to stop romanticizing the Church of the past (and present). While there were certainly saints in the Church's past, there was never a perfect golden age of the Church, and never will be until the End.

These truths also make us abandon our simplistic narratives ("The only homosexual priests are the liberal ones"; "my trad priest could never do X"; "the majority of priests who promise/vow celibacy actually live it out in honesty"; "the Church hierarchy wouldn't lie to us".

Lastly, we shouldn't despair when we see these issues in the Church. Just as a doctor cannot heal a patient without knowing the disease and its spread, so too can there not be true ecclesial reform until everything that is hidden in darkness is exposed to the light, then healed.

I encourage you all to read the vast array of literature (scholarly and popular) that has been written on homosexuality in the priesthood, celibacy-as-lived, and the structures of the Church and how they help (or hinder) the Church's mission of salvation.

Some helpful books:

Everything by Richard Sipe, but especially "A Secret World", "Celibacy in Crisis"

"The Joy of Priesthood" (Rossetti)

"In the Closet of the Vatican" (Martel)

"Goodbye, Good Men" (Rose)

John Jay Report (2004)

Colaianni, Rastrelli, Stanosz, Kraft, Thomas