Popular priest tells parish he's gay, but celibate

katc.com ^ | 01/08/06 | AP

[Emmett McCarthy]

I am a Catholic and have been quite angry about the sexual perversion among our priests. That being said, I agree with you. As long as he's celibate or chaste (depending on which side of the semantic argument one goes with), I have no problem with his inclinations.

[Mamzelle]

There are vows of celibacy and vows of chastity--celibacy, at least until recently, denoted a promise not to marry. Samson took such a vow, but Delilah was still in the picture. The media uses celibacy as a synonym for chastity--the meaning may have changed (dictionaries are much more likely to include neologisms and newly-coined meanings than thirty years ago)--I still don't accept that a vow of celibacy is necessarily also a vow of chastity.

[A.A. Cunningham]

I still don't accept that a vow of celibacy is necessarily also a vow of chastity.

It's irrelevant what you accept. The arbiter is Canon Law and in that there is no difference between a promise of celibacy or vow of chastity for those receiving Holy Orders in the Latin Rite.

[Mamzelle]

It's relevant to someone--maybe even someone who engages in politeness. The definitions are hardly beyond discussion, and we can agree to disagree and you can be disagreeable.

If those wanting to be specific about what a priest promises, and what he does not promise--it would be wise to use language that carries no nuance

[nickcarraway]

The problem is he claimed to be gay, not just homosexual. Big difference.

[Cowboy Bob]

celibate Queer - Oxymoron