Father Donald Cozzens, an author, psychologist, and Catholic seminary president says that there is such a high percentage of gay priests in the church that he is concerned that "the priesthood is or is becoming a gay profession." In his book, "The Changing Face of the Priesthood," -- published in the year 2000 -- he estimates that 50% of Roman Catholic priests have a homosexual orientation.

Actual surveys: In the Fall of 1999, the Kansas City Star sent a questionnaire to 3,000 priests in the U.S. 73% did not reply. The low response rate could be anticipated. One would expect homosexuals and bisexuals to be reluctant to respond to the questionnaire since it deals with such a sensitive issue, and originated from a newspaper. Homosexual and bisexual priests would probably be less likely to reply to the survey. Among the 801 priests who did reply: 75% said they had a heterosexual orientation; 15% homosexual; 5% bisexual.

According to Amanda Ripley of Time Magazine, estimates range from 15% to 50%.

According to Bill Blakemore of ABC News, "...nobody knows what percentage of the American priesthood is gay; estimates range from less than 10% to more than 30%."

A NBC report on celibacy and the clergy found that "anywhere from 23 percent to 58 percent" of the Catholic clergy have a homosexual orientation.

Author and sociologist James G. Wolfe estimated that 48.5% of priests were gay.

During 1990, Rev. Thomas Crangle, a Franciscan priest in Passaic, N.J., mailed a survey to 500 randomly selected priests. Of the 398 responses, about 45% said that they were gay.

If we assume that all of the estimates are of equal validity, then about 33% of priests have a homosexual orientation -- about one in three. However, as Father Donald Cozzens stated: "Beyond these estimates, of course, are priests who remain confused about their orientation and men who have so successfully denied their orientation, that in spite of predominately same-sex erotic fantasies, they insist that they are heterosexual." Many regard themselves as not homosexual because they have never acted on their fantasies, desire and orientation. To that might be added an unknown percentage of priests who have a bisexual orientation.

Los Angeles poll: The NYT survey does not mention the Los Angeles poll of October 2002, which revealed that currently the American priesthood has a much higher percentage of homosexuals than does the general population. The poll shows ". . .a combined 15% of priests identified themselves as homosexuals (9%) or "somewhere in between, but more on the homosexual side" (6%). But, said the poll, "among younger priests

Deborah Caldwell @ BeliefNet: Before one understands the perils of this solution, it's important to test the premise. Is the Catholic clergy increasingly gay? Apparently the answer is yes. No statistics are truly reliable, but several studies have been done over the years that place the figure at between 10 and 50% of the priesthood. The most reliable statistic is believed to come from a study by A.W. Richard Sipe, in his 1995 book "Sex, Priests, and Power: Anatomy of a Crisis," who writes that 30% of priests have a homosexual orientation, far higher than the percentage in the overall populations.

Two years ago, the Kansas City Star reported that hundreds of Roman Catholic priests across the United States were dying of AIDS-related illnesses, and hundreds more were living with HIV, the virus that causes the disease, according to medical experts, priests and health statistics. Though the actual number of AIDS deaths is difficult to determine, it now appears priests are dying of AIDS at a rate at least four times that of the general U.S. population.

New Oxford Review: Notes: It just so happens that surveys of the sort Buffer wants have been done, and with very little effect. The latest one was done by the Los Angeles Times, as reported in its October 20 and 21, 2002 issues. (The Times says it's the "most extensive" survey of priests done since its previous survey in 1994.) Of the 45,382 priests in the U.S., the Times sent surveys to 5,000, of whom 1,854 responded. The Times pronounces this "statistically representative." The results?

A combined 15 percent of priests say they are "gay" (9 percent) or "on the homosexual side" (6 percent). Now, the Times admits that 15 percent is "lower than some estimates of the percentage of homosexuals in the priesthood, which have ranged up to 50%" (we've seen estimates as high as 60 percent). Why the large discrepancy? The Times addresses the question: "The poll respondents were guaranteed anonymity, but results on the sexuality questions could have been influenced by wariness of the media and fears among gay priests that disclosing their sexual orientation amid the current crisis would be ill-advised." In other words, the Times is saying that homosexual priests lie - which is not surprising because active homosexual priests are living a lie. So here we have what Buffer wants, a "representative group," but the Times can't vouch for its accuracy.

Or maybe the survey wasn't "statistically representative" after all. Look, 3,146 priests did not respond - that's 63 percent. If a good number of priests who did respond would lie about their sexual (dis-)orientation, it's even more likely that homosexual priests who saw the questions about sexuality simply threw the survey in the trash. In the survey business, this is called "self-selection," which can invalidate a survey. And this is no mere quibble. But let's put that possible problem to the side. What about dissent? The Times does not ask about dissent in seminaries. But what if it had? The Times found that only 53 percent of priests think that sex outside of marriage is always wrong, and only 49 percent think that homosexual behavior is always wrong, while 46 percent favor the ordination of women. If priests picked up their dissenting opinions in the seminary, would they have admitted it, given the "current crisis" the Times speaks of, in this case the pending papally mandated investigation of U.S. seminaries? Moreover, most dissenters don't consider dissent to be dissent; rather, they consider it to be the orthodoxy of the future. It's unlikely that any question about dissent in the seminaries would have yielded accurate results. Well, so much for "surveying a representative group"!

Robert Sungenis, Response to Deal Husdon Catholic Apologetics International,

The Doyle study gives us even more room for pause when we consider the other statistics it reveals. Doyle's study also found that in 1990 about 12,000 priests were sexually involved with adult women. This is confirmed by the thousands of paternity suits filed in court against priests. He also estimated that 6,000 priests were involved with adult men in homosexual relationships. Now, if we add the 3,000 active pedophila cases to the above figures, the total number of cases of sexual immorality in the American priesthood (not counting all the other countries involved in similar improprieties, of which reports show that there are over a dozen other sections of the world with the same problems), that is a total of 21,000 priests in America involved in some type of illicit sexual relationship, out of approximately 45,000 priests in 1990. The total is 47% - a number far higher than the 1-3% you hear from some apologists trying to downplay the present crisis by focusing only on pedophilia cases. Twelve years later, in 2002, the statistics are only worse. Crisis Magazine itself, in the October 2001 issue, documented that 100% of the 188 Catholic dioceses (some say 193 dioceses) in the United States have faced, or are facing, claims of priests in illicit sexual relationships.

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