Bishop Pat Buckley, the dissident cleric who runs his own ministry from Larne, Co Antrim, has said that he is gay, but said that the revelation had not caused him a "crisis of faith or vocation".
Bishop Buckley (47) said that it had taken a lot of soul-searching and, eventually, a pilgrimage to Lourdes to find the courage to declare his homosexuality.
In an interview with the News of the World, for which he writes a weekly column, the bishop said that he had been aware of "certain leanings" since the age of 13 or 14, after being sexually abused as a child.
Asked whether he considered himself "abnormal", Bishop Buckley told BBC Radio Ulster: "Absolutely not. I see myself as different in a whole lot of ways. I also see myself as very human, and over the years I have tried to be human and compassionate as a priest to people who were different and in all types of tight corners. Today, perhaps I find myself needing a bit of understanding and compassion."
He alleged that he had been propositioned frequently while in seminary training. "I think some recent surveys in Ireland have shown that some 40 per cent of priests are gay, and that would be borne out by my own experience in the priesthood over the last 23 years and seven in the seminary."
He felt that his homosexuality had its roots in his early childhood experiences, but in other people it might be a genetic predisposition. "Basically, I think it is a mixture of the two. I think there are people born with the predisposition, which comes from genetic origins, and obviously that is strengthened by any early experiences."
Bishop Buckley said that he was currently celibate, but he had not always been in the past. "I am not being flippant, but I do think human intimacy is an important part of all our lives and can even be incorporated into our spirituality . . . Norms and rules and regulations are very important, but I think the most important thing in moral life is the question of conscience. I believe there is room for objective morality in the teachings of the Pope and the bishops, but it always has to be applied to your own circumstances."
Asked whether his revelation would lead to an even deeper chasm between him and the Catholic Hierarchy, Bishop Buckley said that it was time for the church to move from "the first millennium into the third".