Estimating The Number of Homosexual Priests
In 1102, Saint Anselm of Canterbury demanded that the punishment for homosexuality should be moderate because 'this sin has been so public that hardly anyone has blushed for it, and many, therefore have plunged into it without realising its gravity. It was probably only in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that a mass condemnation of homosexuality began in Europe. This moderated considerably in the final decade of the twentieth century with the distinction now made by Catholic Church authorities between homosexual orientation and homosexual genital activity, forbidding the latter while tolerating the existence of the former.
Read more about this topic: Homosexuality And Roman Catholic Priests
Famous quotes containing the words estimating, number and/or priests:
“I am sure that in estimating every man’s value either in private or public life, a pure integrity is the quality we take first into calculation, and that learning and talents are only the second.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“I am walking over hot coals suspended over a deep pit at the bottom of which are a large number of vipers baring their fangs.”
—John Major (b. 1943)
“Standing navies, as well as standing armies, serve to keep alive the spirit of war even in the meek heart of peace. In its very embers and smoulderings, they nourish that fatal fire, and half-pay officers, as the priests of Mars, yet guard the temple, though no god be there.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)