For how long will priestly celibacy survive?

Dec 11, 2006

SIR — The issue of a celibate priesthood in the catholic Church will not go away and is likely to cause more problems as time goes on.

SIR — The issue of a celibate priesthood in the catholic Church will not go away and is likely to cause more problems as time goes on.

Some authorities claim the tradition of celibacy is derived from the fact that Jesus himself was not married. But then his disciples were, including Simon Peter, said to be the first Pope.

Indeed for more than 1,200 years, Catholic priests and 39 Popes were married men. Married and celibate priests worked side by side in the service of God. It is worldly medieval popes who worked hard to impose mandatory celibacy on the priesthood in order to centralise political power in Rome.

Married priesthood is the original and traditional priesthood of the Catholic Church. So, the issue of celibacy could not have been derived from spiritual commitment. Celibacy in the Church has been around for only about 700 years.

According to information provided by the CITI Ministries on http://fathervince.home.att.net/mpfacts.htm one out of every three Roman catholic priests in the United States has transited from celibacy to the married priesthood.

There are over 110,000 married Catholic priests worldwide. In recent polls, more than 70 per cent of American Catholics favour a married priesthood.

priesthood is defined as a spiritual calling to serve while the status of a cleric is a political position of authority in the institutional church. Most of those who have married have been dismissed from the clerical state (no longer office holders in the Catholic Church’s hierarchy) but retain the fullness of the priesthood.

To refer to such people as ‘ex-priests’ is wrong as ordination to the priesthood is permanent and the Catholic Church says so itself. I find it strange for the Catholic Church to continue recruiting priests and insisting on celibacy.

In theory, priesthood is headed for extinction. For crying out loud where are the priests supposed to come from if everybody became celibate so as to gain a ‘higher spiritual ground’?

A celibate priesthood has no more right to recruit priests anymore than homesexuals to adopt children. Homosexuals know their union cannot produce children. Why should they depend on others for children?

Dominic Ross
Kingston, jamaica

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