The call to priesthood seems to have been complemented by a remarkably early awareness of his own sexuality. He later said that he was just six years old when he first realized that he had a homosexual orientation. It is not without significance that his deep feelings of being set apart by God for a life of service in the church appear to have emerged at the same time as he was discovering something about the nature of his self-identity. But it was only toward the end of his life that he accepted the extent to which spirituality and sexuality were interconnected.
