Debate: Catholic priest celibacy

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Should Catholic priests still be required to take a vow of celibacy?

Background and context

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Church: Does celibacy hurt/help priests perform duties to the Church?

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Pro

I should have added too that the argument setting forth that domestic matters would interfere with our priests' pastoral duties is nonsensical. This is another illustration of the well-anchored perception that women being unable to have any other status than that of a servant needing direction. There are millions of women who raise families without a father, because of widowhood or separation, and most do very well. I am in this case, and people marvel at how well-behaved and enjoyable my daughter is, and I get.... $175/month in child support!!!! It is afflicting that women, now often well-educated and self-sufficient are still perceived as burdens vs. potential sources of support and well-being. What kind of spiritual availability can a depressed, alcoholic, or psychologically off-balance priest can offer his parishioners? Are there not hundreds of thousands of examples of pastors, orthodox and eastern catholic married priests with families that actually act as references to their community? Have you never met a pastor or orthodox priest whose father was a pastor or a priest because they had grown within not only a Christ-centered family but also a pastoral family? Please, break from the St Augustine's view of women! There are women who can be holy outside the convent, in laity!

Of course roman catholic priests should be able to get married! But this will never happen in the Catholic Church as we know it. It is utterly SAD to see marriage reduced to having sex or not having sex, and that sex cannot be anything else than dirty and sinful, and that women cannot be anything else than temptresses obsessed with distracting men, and especially priests... The Church has found in the eloquence of St Augustine all that She needed to validate Her wealth and power building strategies in the Middle Ages as She was receiving large dowries from the aristocratic boys and girls who were sent to Her for priesthood or monastic life. The last situation that She wanted to face was to see this wealth disseminated to support the families of Her clerics. Instituting mandatory celibate combined with a vow of poverty was Her most efficient tactics to safely build Her wealth and associated power. The fundamental issue with priest celibacy is the peception of women and priests within the catholic church, which have not changed since medieval times. With St Augustine, women became portrayed as satanic temptresses vowed to use their sexual attributes to lead men to spiritual destruction, and hardly had any kind os spiritual ability. With him, sex was, for the first time ever, clarly and irectly associated with sin, in contradiction with the Bible's referring to achieving Oneness in love. The trouble is that St Augustine, while very smart and eloquent, was also what we would call today, a sex addict. In the face of his chirstian conversion, the burden of his past sexual "exploits" became such that, unable to take responsibility through forgiving himself, he transferred his guilt onto all women as a generalization of those he has sexually abused, because he knew that any woman could easily tempt him and he was too weak to resist. What is remarkable is that the Catholic Church established him as one of Her pillars, while his writings conveyed such hatred of women in blatant contradiction to Jesus' teachings of Love and Justice. No less remarkable is that the Catholic Church ended up, to serve Her materialistic needs, building Her Canon re: relationships with women on St Augustine's Confessions (of a sick man) rather than the Bible! and almost 1600 years later, the Church has not made a single move to reestablish women in a spiritually meaningful position (I am not talking about priesthood) but still maintain them is some kind of serving sub-status. It is therefore logical that the Church prohibits the marriage of priests, as She cannot fathom any positive role for the priest-on the contrary-vand it will remain so so long as She keeps portraying women according to St. Augustine's Confession rather than the Bible.

The irony is that the Church's mandatory celibacy of priests ends upconveying Her profound disrespect for priests who are not even perceived as able to control their pulsions or see anything else than sex (=sin) in a woman, and makes it that the "Call" to vocation ends up targeting maybe highly spiritual men but also very dysfunctional psychologically. In the end in warding off sex and women with such extreme, the Church has ended up transforming the positive message of Christ into a negative doctrine centered on what She despises most- women and sex. The second irony (of a long list indeed) is having gone at such lengths to cling to her wealth and power, the Church today ends up having to liquidate part of Her treasure to indemnify victims of the sex abuse cases, opening the gates to some unscrupulous individuals who allege sexual abuse to make a quick and easy buck, ruining lives, and covering Herself with shame.

Such a pathetic picture conveys deep pain and mounting resentment if not rage among faithful catholics like myself, as we feel betrayed by the Church, and ridiculed by Her as well as non Church members. Yet, in the face of this catastrophic situation, the Church hierarchy remains in denial and camps on the medieval positions that caused all this turmoil. Maybe the Catholic Church as we know it needs to collapse in order for authentic Christianity to return, for Christ to come back in our lives.

• Marriage and family do not distract from priesthood. Thomas DeMatteo, a non-practicing Catholic from Dingmans Ferry, Delaware, USA: "There are pastors and ministers who are allowed to marry and it doesn't affect their job in doing God's work. I really don't see a problem with priests being able to wed."[1]

• Married priests could better consult married churchgoers Priests are counselors in many ways, counseling individuals on their lives and how they can better reach God. Because marriage is such an important part of living a moral life, it would be valuable for priests to be married so that they can better understand their married churchgoers and provide better counseling as a result.

• Marriage/sex are sacred; priests should be allowed to marry Paragraph 2362 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd ed.) says: "The acts in marriage by which the intimate and chaste union of the spouses takes place are noble and honourable; the truly human performance of these acts fosters the self-giving they signify and enriches the spouses in joy and gratitude."[2]

• Statements that Catholic priests should be allowed to marry Bishop McMahon: "There is no reason why priests shouldn't be allowed to marry. It has always been a matter of discipline rather than doctrine."[3]

• Celibacy forces priests to live lonely life; bad for Church. Ann Bain. "Should Catholic priests be allowed to marry?". Times Online, Comment. October 11, 2005: "Of course priests should be allowed to marry. There is nothing sadder than seeing an old priest live out his days with no family of his own; the zeal and fervour of youth has gone and ahead, loneliness."

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Con

• Celibate priests avoid being torn between God and family Andrea Lemieux. "Should Roman Catholic Priests Be Allowed to Marry?". Washington Post. November 7, 2004: "Roman Catholic priests should not be allowed to be married. They are to be Christ's earthly representatives, to live as He did, and that cannot be done with a wife in tow. When a priest takes his vows, he consecrates his life completely to God and forsakes all earthly attachments. A man cannot serve two masters, and it would be far too easy to follow a wife's wishes over God's [...] I personally love having a non-married priesthood. I never have to worry about whether I am taking away from a child's time, or a wife's time, if I call up with an emergency."

"Should Catholic priests be allowed to marry?". Times Online. October 11, 2005: "A good friend of mine is a Pastor for the Church on Scotland and I know how he struggles in his marriage as well as in his community as he feels he can't be totally devoted to any of them. Name and address withheld."

"Should Catholic priests be allowed to marry? I don’t think so." Pearls of Nonsense. May 12th, 2009: "I’m no theologian, but it seems there are two main ways we Catholic faithful share in the Church’s mission as adults: through marriage and family life, or through religious and clerical life. Since both vocations require a lifelong, full-time commitment, it seems unreasonable to expect anyone to do both at the same time. For example, if a priest were also a husband and father, and he had to choose between the needs of the Church and the needs of his wife and children, who would come first? Or, similarly, if a nun were also a wife and mother? There’s no obviously correct answer, so the preferable thing to do is avoid the question."

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Religious doctrine: Would allowing priests to marry comply with religious doctrine?

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Pro

Absolutely! There is nothing in the Dogma that supports mandatory celibacy for priests. St Paul, who is most often quoted on this matter, in fact specifically offers the opposite of a prohibition: "I am saying that for your own good, NOT TO RESTRICT YOU, but etc...", in the form of a personal recommendation. In all humility (a cardinal value in catholicism) and authentic love, he respects his audience by leaving those called to priesthood free choice.

• Celibacy is not divine law, only Church law Muriel Porter. "Church will benefit if priests are able to marry". The Age. January 31, 2005: "Unlike the issue of women priests, which the Pope has declared to be theologically impossible, the celibacy requirement is not a matter of church doctrine. Rather, it is a discipline only formally imposed on the clergy in 1139, when a church council declared clerical marriage invalid. What the church has banned, the church can restore."

• Priestly celibacy is unnatural. Adrian Ryan. "Should Catholic priests be allowed to marry?". Times Online, Comment. October 11, 2005: "Celibacy is an unnatural state. How can a priest be expected to advise on the complexities of a normal marital relationship when he himself is utterly ignorant? It is only natural that a priest would want to marry, have a family and experience the love, affection, and fulfillment that marriage can bring. It is high time that the Church recognised and encouraged it. Adrian Ryan, Ardara, Ireland."

• Men inclined to love/marry should not be forbidden priesthood Oliveiro Vernie. "Should Catholic priests be allowed to marry?". Times Online. October 11, 2005: "It is ridiculous to bar a man from becoming or being a priest simply because he has happened to fall deeply in love with a woman."

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Con

• Bible provides clear rationale for forbidding priests from marrying. Unmarried 1 Corinthians 7:32b–35 NIV: "An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs—how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord."[4]

"NOT TO RESTRICT YOU"

there is a difference between "forbidding" and "recommending not to"! the very passage from St Paul that you mention clearly states "I am saying this for your own good, NOT TO RESTRICT YOU, but that you may live etc..."- which is specifically the OPPOSITE of a prohibition ("NOT TO")and a recommended OPTION that St Paul offers in full respect of individual choices and people.

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Tradition: Is it wrong to maintain the tradition of Catholic priest celibacy?

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Pro

What is wrong is to impose a tradition that finds its roots in St Augustine's pathological perception of women as mere sexual objects without much spirituality because he could not assuage his guilt of having sexually used/abused (in those days women were kept sheltered in families until marriage-therefore sex out of wedlock was either rape or prostitution)a large number of women and abandoned his concubine of 7 years and their son. What is the credibility of a tradition established on St Augustine's Confessions rather than the Bible?

• Catholic Church did not adopt celibacy until second millennium Rev. Donald Cozzens. "Commentary: Celibacy should be rethought". CNN. May 15, 2009: "More and more Catholics today are coming to understand that celibacy as a universal law for priests had its origins in the 12th century and that during the church's first millennium, priests and bishops -- and at least thirty-nine popes -- were married."

• Other priests can marry, Roman Catholics should be able to Joseph Snyder. "Should Roman Catholic Priests Be Allowed to Marry?". Washington Post, Letter to the Editor. November 7, 2004: "Eastern Orthodox Catholic priests are allowed to marry. Also, certain married Protestant priests may convert as priests to the Roman Catholic faith. Obviously, the precedent for married Catholic priests is already established. So the question is not 'if' Roman Catholic priests should be married but 'when.'"

• Married men don't have to divorce upon entering priesthood. John Aloysius Farrell. "Catholic Church Should End Celibacy Rule, Let Rev. Cutie and Other Priests Marry". US News and World Report. May 12, 2009: "if you come to the priesthood already married, the church doesn't make you divorce. There are practicing Catholic married priests, and the world has not come to a flaming end."

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Con

• The Church should maintain its tradition of celibacy. R.N. Lentejas Jr. "Debate: Priests should be permitted to marry". Helium: "I believe that priests in the Latin Church should live a celibate life to maintain the rich tradition of the Church. It has been a universal notion from time immemorial until today and until the future that priests are celibates for the sake of the Kingdom of God. This is a universal understanding from across the globe unique to Catholic priests alone, because there are priests in other Christian churches who are actually married. There exists among them (Catholic priests) a universal concept of brotherhood, surpassing the many barriers of race, culture, ethnic origin, economic standing, and many others."

• Allowing priests to marry insults those who kept celibate. Archbishop John Foley, a Vatican spokesman, said in 2005: "I think it would be an insult to the priests who have remained faithful to readmit these individuals who have left the priesthood in order to marry."[5]

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Sexual abuse: Will allowing priests to marry lower sexual abuse in Church?

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Pro

• Allowing priests to marry would reduce sexual abuse in Church. Louise Linehan, a non-practicing Catholic from Dingmans Ferry: "I think priests should be allowed to marry because it might lessen the sexual abuse cases there are in the church."[6]

John Aloysius Farrell. "Catholic Church Should End Celibacy Rule, Let Rev. Cutie and Other Priests Marry". US News and World Report. May 12, 2009: "You would think that after all the molestation scandals of recent years, the Catholic Church would give its priests a break and let them choose to be celibate, or to enjoy loving relationships with women."

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Con

Probably not- the issue of celibacy (along with the "vocation crisis") is not about sex or no sex. It is about an imposed discipline, with zero dogmatic foundation- based on the use by the Church of St Augustine's despicable view of women to serve the Church's central concern with preserving her wealth and power. Extensive statistical data gathered and analyzed by an independent source are needed before venturing in such correlation. I am a scientist, adn do not draw conclusions absent of statistically significant data. Sexual predation roots in the urge of asserting power, and as such is not an exclusive deviation of celibacy at all- you have sexual predators who are married!

• Priestly celibacy does not encourage sexual predation. "Should Catholic priests be allowed to marry? I don’t think so." Pearls of Nonsense. May 12th, 2009: "Remember several years ago when celibacy was blamed by the media for creating pedophiles? It’s shocking how many otherwise intelligent people still fervently believe that not having sex with women makes men have sex with young boys."

• Lifting celibacy enables sexual exploitation by priests It would allow priests to take advantage of their position of power to seek to date or court women. And, it would create an heir of suspicion among church-goers regarding whether a priest is abusing their position.

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Vocations: Would allowing priests to marry increase vocations?

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Pro

• Priests should be allowed to marry to increase vocations Muriel Porter. "Church will benefit if priests are able to marry". The Age. January 31, 2005: "The present plea is justified on the basis that drastic action is needed to restore priestly numbers, which in the Western world have dropped markedly over the past 30 years. In Australia the decline is estimated to be about 20 per cent overall, with a much greater drop - about two-thirds - in the numbers of trainee priests. [...] The requirement of priestly celibacy is perhaps the sole reason for this unprecedented decline. The Anglican and Protestant churches, which permit their clergy to marry, have not suffered any significant shortage of trainees over the same period."

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Con

• Allowing priests to marry would not increase vocations Kathryn Nicole Stockhausen. "Should Roman Catholic Priests Be Allowed to Marry?". Washington Post. November 7, 2004: "I have heard some who state that it would lead to an increase in vocations, but there is not a single piece of statistical data to prove that. Of those who have contemplated a vocation to the priesthood, very few have stated that a vow of celibacy was a stumbling block that they could not overcome. In fact, I have known of many ordained individuals who see celibacy as a blessing, and as a way to allow them to focus more on their vocation of service to others and to the church."

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Finances: Would allowing priests to marry help/hurt Church finances?

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Pro

• Church policy on marriage is greedy effort to maximize revenues. By banning marriage, the Church prevents the assets of a priest from going to his family, ensuring instead that it goes to the Church. This is an unfortunate abuse of Church power to acquire wealth.

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Con

reading the previous comment: here we are, at the crux of the problem! the Church would need to pay them more, which She has gone at great length to not do for almost 10 centuries through imposing celibacy. Not only that but the Church would also have to admit She erred in positioning St Augustine's "Confessions" at the cornerstone of her canon thereby labelling until today women as mere sexual objects and temptresses vowed to the felling virtuous spiritual men....

• Allowing priests to marry would require Church pay them more. Kathryn Nicole Stockhausen. "Should Roman Catholic Priests Be Allowed to Marry?". Washington Post. November 7, 2004: "And as for financial considerations, most Roman Catholic priests, especially diocesan ones, receive a substantial portion of their pay in the form of in-kind contributions. This would be difficult to maintain if a priest took on a wife and children, and their pay would have to be increased as well. The church, especially in America, is having enough financial problems right now without adding to it by allowing priests to marry."

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Pro/con sources

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Pro

• Lance Morrow. "Let's Priests Marry". Time. Mar. 17, 2002
• Oliveiro Vernie. "Should Catholic priests be allowed to marry?". Times Online. October 11, 2005
• Rev. Donald Cozzens. "Commentary: Celibacy should be rethought". CNN. May 15, 2009
• "Vatican 'must let priests wed'". Times Online. October 11, 2005
• Muriel Porter. "Church will benefit if priests are able to marry". The Age. January 31, 2005

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Con

• "Should Roman Catholic Priests Be Allowed to Marry?". Washington Post. November 7, 2004
• "Should Catholic priests be allowed to marry? I don’t think so." Pearls of Nonsense. May 12th, 2009

See also

• Debate: Should Catholic priests be allowed to marry?

External links

• "Catholic Church has no reason to stop priests from marrying, says leading bishop". Telegraph. November 8, 2008
• "Should Catholic priests be allowed to marry?". Times Online. October 11, 2005
• R.N. Lentejas Jr. "Debate: Priests should be permitted to marry". Helium
• "Should Catholic priests be allowed to marry?". BBC. June 11, 2001
• "Should Catholic Priests Be Allowed to Marry?". ABC. November 16, 2005
• New Advent article on the Celibacy of the Clergy
• CatholiCity: How to Refute arguments against Priestly Celibacy
• Religious Tolerance.org articles
• Q & A from Zenit (Vatican News Agency)
• Beliefnet article
• Priestly Celibacy Today : Thomas McGovern
• Goodbye Father : The Celibate Male Priesthood and the Future of the Catholic Church : Richard A. Schoenherr
• The Case for Clerical Celibacy: Its Historical Development and Theological Foundations : Alphonso M. Cardinal Stickler
• Priestly Celibacy: Its Scriptural, Historical, Spiritual, and Psychological Roots : Peter M.J. Stravinskas
• Married Catholic Priests : Their History, Their Journeys, Their Reflections : Anthony P. Kowalski
• Celibacy in Crisis :