but I think that if you are, uh, anti-church, you might be more inclined to see his going to Rodney's apartment as a completely positive though painful step on a road to figuring out who you really are, getting away from the momentary guilt and then he and Rodney will be in love and it will all be excellent.

Well, yes and no. As a non-Catholic Christian who is fascinated and somewhat horrified by the policies and structures of the Catholic Church, I totally see the tragedy here, but the tragedy took place long before the story started, when John had to make a sacrifice emotionally equivalent to amputating a limb in order to be the person he felt called to be. I don't think the guilt will be momentary, and the future won't necessarily be easy, but yes, this is ultimately a step toward wholeness -- because John wants it to be. (It's not that I think there's anything inherently wrong with celibacy, if somebody *wants* to offer that to God, but to make it an enforced requirement for serving God and one's fellow man in particular ways, well, in my own personal theological view, it's just needless tragedy, from start to finish.)

And speaking of sin, engaging in touchy theological discussion with complete strangers in someone else's journal is definitely a LiveJournal sin, so maybe we should pretend I didn't say any of this. :-) My point is just that even someone who is rabidly anti-certain-church-policies can see a lot of sadness in this story.