I strongly disagree, as always. I doubt very much there is only one reason. And, even accepting your explanation as "one of the reasons," all taken together it would represent a tiny minority. When it comes to young men, who else but a gay man could entertain a life without having love with a woman? And then there's homophobia... self loathing. We've all encountered the self-loathing types. Joining the church could easily be seen as a method of "blocking" the threat of acting on unwanted feelings. It's another layer, another obstacle to grabbing your ankles & moaning. And then there's just plain denial. They're not gay. They're not! Not! Not! Not! Not! But they also have no attraction to women (or very little anyway), and don't have an issue with swearing off cat for the rest of their lives. Of course, this doesn't mean that they won't eventually recognize that they're gay... If I wanted to boil it all down, I'd say that most were raised within a culture that valued priests but did not tolerate homoloveuality. They had no legal-religious-social option to live their lives as gay men. And, not seeing a potential for love-romance in their life, they had no reason to not become priests. The only other option for them was to "live the lie," take a wife and pretend that they're straight... as many men still do. This option wouldn't be open to all gay men, of course, and not all gay men capable of pbutting for straight would have issues with becoming a priest.
|