Full disclosure: I don’t think any officers of the church should be forced to take a vow of celibacy. That said, I think that any church officer who takes any vow of office should keep that vow. With that in mind, here’s the sad story of Krzysztof Charamsa, former officer of the Vatican:

Less than a month after Monsignor Krzysztof Charamsa of Poland was fired from his job at the Vatican office immediately after coming out, the high-ranking priest has now been defrocked for continuing “to break rules governing the behaviour of Catholic priests.” . . .

Polish Bishop Ryszard Kasyna said in a statement that Charamsa was defrocked for ignoring his vow of celibacy despite a previous warning.

“Considering Father Charamsa’s lack of will to correct his behaviour and public statements indicating he will continue to break rules governing the behaviour of Catholic priests,” the Bishop had no choice but to defrock Charasma, according to the statement. “This penalty is intended to encourage Father Charamsa to mend his ways and can be rescinded depending on his behaviour.” . . .

Charamsa denies that he broke his vow of celibacy, saying he has “never touched a woman.”

I don’t know which is worse: Charamsa flouting his vow or his Pharisaical justification of it. Obviously the vow of celibacy means you aren’t to have sexual contact with anyone at all. I imagine that any priest caught breaking his vow of celibacy with a woman would be removed from his position and defrocked if unrepentant, just the same as Charamsa. The media, and Charamsa for that matter, have turned this into a harshly homophobic action. It’s not.

Conveniently for the Roman Catholic church, they don’t really have to discuss whether or not they would ordain a homosexual priest. Because all sexual activity is forbidden to a priest. Heterosexual desires, homosexual desires, or zoophilic or pedophilic desires for that matter, wouldn’t really be relevant as long as a priest didn’t act on them. That’s what the vow of celibacy means.

Charamsa claims that many Vatican officials are homosexual. That may be the case. Certainly many priests have not been faithful to their vows of celibacy—whether through pedophilia, homosexual activity, or any other sexual contact. But it’s not that complicated. He made a vow. He broke it. He was removed from office. Case closed.