There are authorities who would not attack virginity and celibacy directly but focus on issues like proper psycho-sexual integration and the fact that the Church makes the discipline compulsory. This group would assert that many men are deformed in personality and not formed in any way that benefits either them or the faith community. They suggest that some, if not all clergy, are reluctant celibates who suffer a misaligned interior life where debase desires and filthy images are hidden. Frustration and anger resorts in all sorts of compulsive behaviors like excessive eating, drinking, smoking, etc. These critics suggest that mandatory celibacy might fuel a need for control and a lust for power. The Eastern rites are not exempt from their critique since only celibates among priests are permitted to become bishops. The man who is ambitious for such advancement, they argue, trades a wife and family for a higher prelate’s juridical authority. Gays repress and attack their own under the auspices of faith orthodoxy to demonstrate their dominion, even if it disconnects them from the sympathies of their own sexual identity. Women’s ordination is rejected, according to this scenario, not for historical, biblical or doctrinal reasons; but because women can have no role of intimate partnership with them, either in the family home or in the church sanctuary. Okay, I do not much buy this perspective; however, we need to be aware that this is how some think about the celibate priest and the structures that maintain the status-quo.
The revisionists who oppose mandatory celibacy would say that no institution, not even the Church, can demand such a renunciation when many men are twisted and personally corrupted by it. They would admit that there are successful celibates, but only a few. My answer is that the Church is perfectly within her rights and that celibacy is far more often a positive force in the lives of priests than something negative. There is the presumption that many men who discern a calling to the priesthood might not have the accompanying gift of celibacy. My rebuttal is that our Lord works intimately with his Church. If a man is truly called to the priesthood, God will make possible through grace the accompanying celibate life. Everyone truly called, without exception, receives this gift. A lot depends upon how we respond and integrate this gift into discipleship and ministry. At least this is my view.
Filed under: Anti-Catholicism, Apologetics, Catholic, Celibacy, Discipleship, Marriage, Morality, Priests, Religion, Sacraments, Sexuality, Sin |
Blogger Priest 
“If even one married priest can do a good job then it makes a lie out of everything that you and the institutional church has to say.”
Let’s apply that reasoning to other areas of life:
If even one single mother does a good job raising her child, it makes a lie out of everything the church teaches about marriage.
If even one high school drop-out becomes a millionaire, it makes a lie out of everything parents and teachers say about education.
If even one drunk person drives home safely, it makes a lie out of everything experts say about the dangers of drinking and driving.
This is the most [expletive deleted] I have ever heard. What are you trying to do with your propaganda against married priests? You go on and on about your warped celibacy like it is god’s gift to man, and yet it is simply an abuse of power by a church that is more concerned about money, resources and power than about the natural rights of men in her service. You have bought a false bill of goods. If even one married priest can do a good job then it makes a lie out of everything that you and the institutional church has to say. Face it, it is all for nothing. Celibacy is not a gift but an arbitrary form of penance. Celibacy has filled the ministerial roster with gay men. I have no problem with gays, but it is tragic that most heterosexual men should find the priesthood closed to them. That is what I find so very sick. It is easier for gays to hide their sins than straight priests. Men don’t get pregnant. Women don’t live in rectories and if they do, someone is bound to get caught. I know priests and I think your celibacy is largely a deception, a propaganda to fool young men into joining the cabal. It makes no sense to me. I hope the new pope will change this terrible situation which opens doors to sick men and closes doors to normal ones. If the church is to survive something has to change. Stop looking backward. Stop being defensive about married priests. What the church should do is this: 1) Immediately reinstate the tens of thousands of priests who left the priesthood to get married. 2) Allow men currently serving as celibates the opportunity to get married. 3) Publicly acknowledge all the mistresses and illegitimate children of the past so that we can do justice for these women and their sons and daughters. 4) Have a special synod in Rome where only married clergy and their wives will have a vote to reconsider artificial contraception and family planning. It is way past time for the church to get real and stop being the laughing stock of the Christian world!