I applaud him for revealing his secret. He came out on the same day the new pope issued his first document, aimed at barring from seminaries would-be priests who harbor what it calls "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" or who "support the so-called gay culture."

O'Brien's aim was to demonstrate that you can be a good, respected, hard-working priest while simultaneously knowing -- in a deep-seated way -- that your sexual orientation is toward other men.

For 14 years he put her welfare first. During that time he taught in Catholic schools and worked as a church organist. After his mother's death he re-entered the seminary to be ordained just three years ago, in his early 50s.

You might even call him an ideal priest, coming to his commitment still ardent after half a century of living in the gaudy, rowdy, undemanding world.

When we always wear our well-pressed suits, we do not connect. It is only through sharing our secrets that we can know each other intimately, and get a glimpse of the wonder and mystery of human life.

The writer Frederick Buechner says this: "What we hunger for, perhaps more than anything else, is to be known in our full humanness and yet that is often just what we also fear more than anything else.

"It is important to tell, at least from time to time, the secret of who we truly and fully are because otherwise we run the risk of losing track, and little by little come to accept instead the highly edited version which we put forth in hope that the world will find it more acceptable than the real thing."

This is cache, read story here