In a recent talk with the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious Men and Women, Pope Francis was remarkably frank and candid about the gay cabal that exists within the Church and even inside the Vatican itself. The Holy Father said:
“Yes, it is difficult. In the curia there are holy people, truly holy people. But there is also a current of corruption, also there is, it is true… they speak of a ‘Gay Lobby’ and that is true, it is there.. we will have to see what we can do…The reform of the Roman Curia is something that almost all Cardinals asked for in the Congregations preceding the Conclave. I also asked for it. I cannot promote the reform myself, these matters of administration… I am very disorganized, I have never been good at this. But the cardinals of the Commission will move it forward.”
An astounding admonition - concerning a problem that any well-informed Catholic already new about, especially here in the US, where the ramifications from the priest sex scandal are still being felt. Although, I have chosen not to discuss my own personal experiences in the religious life, at any great length, I can surely testify that something very odd was going on inside some sectors of the Church. When I left the religious congregation I had joined, because of very gross transgressions involving both molestation and homosexuality, I quickly contacted our local Ordinary. Except, the Bishop of the diocese did not want to hear what I had to say. It was odd, because I thought he would be thankful for alerting him to this great evil right in his midst. I was wrong. The whole matter didn’t get resolved until everything publicly blew-up in his face, and another bishop had to come in and clean up the mess. It was such a waste: of the Church's authority, prestige, and reputation.
Did any of this stink of gay sympathy within the ranks? I do not know. But, I know that when I was sleazing my way from one end of San Francisco to the other, I would occasionally come across a trolling Catholic priest. At the time, I worshiped the devil, and was completely anti-Catholic. But, the attitudes of these men still intrigued me. Why were they doing these things? For the most part, they made rather inventive somersaults over Catholic dogma and said that since they were not having sex with women, or that this was not an emotional involvement, they had not broken their vows of celibacy. Some said that the Church's antiquated rules against sex, and particularly homosexuality, were soon to be done away with: and, they were just jumping the gun a bit. I was dumb and uneducated; therefore, it made sense. As far as I could surmise, even though, at the time, I could not have cared less, from my conversations with these priests, they tended to seek out the protection of like-minded clerics. Then, the vast majority of them were in their 40s and 50s. Now, they would be in their 60s and 70s.
Most likely, some of these priests rose up the ladder of the Church hierarchy. Now, they could hold positions of power. I once disliked, almost hated, them very much, and judged their poor decisions rather harshly. When I befriended a very orthodox and kindly priest, who emerged from the same era, I gained a greater insight into the causation for the homosexual subculture in the priesthood. He told me that during his seminary training, many young men were horrendously misguided into believing that the Church's pronouncements on sexual matters and the requirements for the priesthood would be changing radically. They were also told that the homosexual orientation was not a hindrance to ordination; it could even be embraced: if done thoughtfully. Most, he said, later on, left the priesthood. Others staid, and tried to encourage change from within. And, here we are today. Blessedly, what the Pope is unable to root out, time will do. For, the new generation of Catholic priests, those ordained since the 1990s, are of a very different sort than those who were sadly malformed in the 1970s and 80s. According to the latest (2013) USCCB survey of the newly ordained: are younger they pray the Rosary, take-part in Eucharistic Adoration and are thankfully orthodox.