I usually make it a point not to agree with the Pope, but on this point I agree absolutely.

No government has any business dictating to a Church who may or may not be ordained to their priesthood or ministry, rabbinate, etc. An official of any institution should be expected to share that institution's values and beliefes, surely.

Now, in the case of an individual gay guy who wants to be a priest, I'd ask him why in hell he would want to burrow inside an institution that condemns his very nature? And then I would advise him to look into the Episcopal Church of the US.

I suppose I can try to understand why someone born and raised within a particular religious tradition would want to "stay home" within said church, but at some point you need to recognize that while you may have changed, the church is not changing ~ or if so, not much and not quickly at all.