UNITED STATES
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Tim Townsend
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
09/24/2005
In April 2002, Wilton Gregory, then bishop of Belleville and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said something that startled American Catholics.
"There does exist within American seminaries a homosexual atmosphere or dynamic that makes heterosexuals think twice" about entering the priesthood, he said. "It is an ongoing struggle to make sure the Catholic priesthood is not dominated by homosexual men."
The idea that some priests are gay may not have surprised most Catholics, but that an important American bishop would be so forthcoming about such a sensitive reality surprised many. Gregory, who is now the archbishop of Atlanta, made his comments in Rome, where 12 American cardinals had been summoned by Pope John Paul II in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse crisis.