Abstract
The question of power relations in the Catholic Church has been problematized in many studies in history and political sciences, illuminating, for example, the events surrounding the establishment of papal centralism, or the complexity of relations inside the clerical hierarchy. But critical analyses of a pyramidal representation of power seem to concentrate on the Church as an institution, without studying, on a microsociological level, relations of domination between people themselves. The most classical form of domination in the religious arena consists of proclaiming moral rules and prohibitions in order to induce behaviors of conformity and obedience. However, the relations between rules and practices are complex; the author attempts to distinguish some elements of this complexity, drawing on interviews with a group of Catholic priests who have openly declared themselves homosexual.