I knew one of those men, who died just last year. He was still feeling his welts from those days. He said he was treated very badly by the Church, assurances having been given previously. He married a nun of his acquaintance, and they remained married even though he had to give up his faculties and she had to leave her order.
Both of them, however, remained observant Catholics, he until his dying day.
I'm not Catholic, so take it for what it's worth-but the horror bishops felt about the men who married dwarfed the horror over the child molesters.
I know a priest who anounced his intention to marry in the morning and was out of his house that night-the only place he had to live.
There appeared to be a visceral revulsion about these men (who were doing a very normal thing, albeit breaking a promise) that just did not exist with regard to the molesters.
To me, this bespeaks an imbalance in the appreciation of the human sexual faculty, which undervalues marriage (the epitome of heterosexual natural design) and overvalues disdain for marriage-which may have many roots, but one of which is, obviously, homosexuality.
I think it would have been prudent to allow marriage back then, and I think it would be prudent today.