1.   So it would seem safe to assume that life as a gay priest might be something of a tortured path -- if not a contradiction in terms.

2.   And how can gay priests reasonably expect acceptance when celibacy is demanded of heterosexuals?

3.   An article reprinted from the Catholic News Service in the same issue suggests that the Vatican is deeply concerned about the number of gay priests.

4.   And it asks, if the church were concerned about the number of gay priests, how it would go about determining who was gay?

5.   -- A gay Catholic priest, who said he remained celibate, resigned from the faculty at the University of Notre Dame in March.

6.   -- An Episcopal bishop faced heresy charges last year after he ordained a gay priest in New Jersey.

7.   A few decades ago, gay Roman Catholic priests were all but invisible.

8.   A Roman Catholic bishop calls for gay priests to come out of the closet.

9.   But a gay priest must be careful in ways a straight priest need not be, he says.

10.   But the archbishop had qualms about ordaining openly gay priests, though he said Western preoccupation with homosexuality was not an issue in other parts of the world.