People talk now about a "lavender mafia," as if gay priests were all part of one big club.

A gay priest may be out to some other priests, maybe 20 in a large diocese, but not to most of them.

If there are so many gay priests, how could the church survive without them?

The planned meeting in London drew criticism, too, from supporters of gay priests.

Yes, there is a disproportionately high number of gay priests compared with the general population.

And heaven knows there are plenty of gay priests in the church.

"It's like they have this plan to empty the church," said a gay priest on the East Coast.

The action in question was the consecration of an openly gay priest as a bishop.

He has also said that his diocese has a number of gay priests.

Most significantly, it does nothing about current gay priests.