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I am afraid you are right. I recall talking in the early '60s with an Army chaplain about his experiences as the head of a seminary. I only knew him slightly, but for some reason he chose to confide in me. It seems that after Vatican II, his seminary just emptied out. All of these young gguys who had been told by other priests that the Church was about to abandon celibacy and its stance on birth control, so that they could expect lives not very different from the Protestant clergy.

Looking back, I think that explains a lot about the liberal reformers and their lay supporters: they just wanted to "fit" into the American culture, which was of course (then) quite Protestant.

Latin was already gone, now--soon--out goes the Tridentine form, and a lot of all the devotions, down go the altar rails, now the priest looks us in the aisle. Out goe the silent masses, and even the old missa contata, and in comes the kumbaya, folk-musicish stuff. By-by to theteaching nuns, who jump over wall with great alacrity. Out go many of the older priests--who to give them justice--are tired of being cogs in the eccelsiastical machine, mechanically dispensing the Sacraments and under the thumb of tyrranical pastors. And those who remain, are dispirited, feeling like saps. And the recruiting of new priests lags and even stops, and we have an almost Baptist view of the Church, with an elevation of the laity to virtual par with the clergy--so long as they really don't challenge the control of things by the "hip" clerics, who now take over the Church. OR try to. There is always a resistance, push back, and than God for that awful, awful thing called "Roe v. Wade," It causes many liberals Catholics to pull back from their alliance with Planned Parenthood. We--yeah that includes me--we suddenly see the cloven hoof beneath the judicial gown, and we begin to see what Humanae Vitae warned us about.

But of course many of us didn't know about a disturbing new trend in the seminaries. Many of the priests who did not leave to get married, did not leave because they were quite happy NBOt to be married--with a woman. And they began to recruit more of their kind into the priesthood. This began to turn around somewhat in the '80s, but it is like turning a battleship.

As for the women, I agree. Many women have always liked the "spiritual" kind of priest. Do understand that many of that type are not the least bit "gay". But they do seem to be what us husbands often are not. This includes the actual gays, who are so, so sympathetic and understanding. But you are forgetting the demands of the flesh. Some women look at a handsome young priest and have the same thought that some of us have when looking at a very pretty young girl. "Virgin"! Could I teach you a few things!