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The Tablet Letter on the sadness of celibacy
- Written by: Joseph Fitzpatrick
The Tablet, 6 July 2024
Sadness of celibacy
I was touched by Cathy Galvin’s article on priesthood (“Thank you, Father”, 22 June). But the emotion that stayed with me after reading it was one of sadness and melancholy.
There is a sadness brought on by mandatory celibacy – priests in the western Church cannot be ordained unless they take a vow not to marry. The result for many is a loneliness that nothing can assuage.
The priest she focused on at the start was lonely. He was gaunt, poorly clothed, did not eat enough and could not give up smoking: a man without a wife to look after him. Like many former priests, I left my practice as a priest because of celibacy.
But the celibacy ruling is based on faulty theology. For more than the first Christian millennium, priests, bishops and popes in the West married and had children.
It was Pope Innocent III who imposed celibacy as a condition for ordination in the twelfth century. He wrote: “Who does not know that conjugal intercourse is never committed without itching of the flesh and heat and foul concupiscence whence the conceived seeds are befouled and corrupted?”
Today, we have to ask if celibacy should remain mandatory, especially when we read these words in the Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes: “The actions within marriage by which couples are united intimately and chastely are noble and worthy ones” – a complete reversal of the words of Pope Innocent.
Celibacy is a major reason for priests leaving the priesthood and for the dwindling number of priests. At least part of the remedy would be the ordination of married men.
Joseph Fitzpatrick
Ilkley, West Yorkshire
"One man, two vocations is perfectly possible"
- Written by: Chris McDonnell
Founded in Britain in the 1970s, the Movement for a Married Clergy is closing down its work on Easter Sunday and handing over the reins to a new synodal group, explains its secretary.
I return this Easter to an issue that refuses to hide its face, the continuing fall in the number of priests serving our parishes. We should be considering this question as a matter of some urgency if we are to maintain our present diocesan structures at anywhere near their present level, let alone seek to become a missionary Church.
A number of factors might be considered that have given rise to our present predicament. The age profile of serving priests continues to rise. Parishes with more than one priest are rare so the return alone to an empty house is uninviting. Above all, the question of a compulsorily celibate clergy remains with us. How often do our bishops face the unenviable task of replacing a priest who, through age or infirmity, can no longer continue with his duties? Or a younger man who has fallen in love and is unable to sustain his vocation?
The Catholic Church needs married priests now
- Written by: THOMAS REESE
At the Last Supper, Jesus said, 'Do this in memory of me.' He did not say, 'Be celibate.'
Without the Eucharist, it seems obvious: There is no Catholic Church. It feeds us as a community of believers and transforms us into the body of Christ active in the world today. But according to Catholic theology, we cannot have the Eucharist without priests.
Sadly, in many parts of the world, there is a eucharistic famine, precisely because there are no priests to celebrate the Eucharist. This problem has been going on for decades and is only getting worse.
Last year, the Vatican reported that while the number of Catholics worldwide increased by 16.2 million in 2021, the number of priests decreased by 2,347. As a result, on average there were 3,373 Catholics for every priest in the world (including retired priests), a rise of 59 people per priest.
Urgent need for married priests
- Written by: The Tablet
The present policy of closing parish communities because of the shortage of priests and gathering them into larger conglomerations destroys those communities, with an inevitable loss of members, and is based not on the needs of the faithful but on lack of priests.
In every parish community there are faithful married men who are well versed in their faith, often with theological qualifications, who could, after a short time of preparation, be ordained to the presbyterate. This would ensure the celebration of the Eucharist in their community and its continuance. If the community were too small to maintain its buildings, these could be disposed of and the community could still meet in a local church of another denomination, a hall or whatever.
Our people are well used to married priests now, so that they would have no problem in having one, especially if it would save their community. Moreover, what we are suggesting would involve no financial burden on the community since these candidates would be either working or retired with a pension and they would already have their own accommodation.
We feel sure that this would be a right pastoral approach and that our people would support such a move by our bishops. Maybe they have already approached Rome on this subject in the past and received a negative response but the situation is now more urgent and this seems an obvious solution to at least one of the problems which presently face our Church, and we feel the time is ripe for such a request to be made.
(Fr) Derek Reeve, (Fr) Nicholas France, (Fr) Tom Grufferty, (Fr) Vincent Harvey, (Fr) David Sillince, (Fr) Paul Townsend
Portsmouth
Archbishop Scicluna - Roman Catholic church should revise the requirement for priests to be celibate
- Written by: Alex Walker
A senior Vatican official has said that the Roman Catholic church should revise the requirement for priests to be celibate, while acknowledging that some will view the idea as “heretical”.
Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, who is based in the Vatican’s doctrinal office and is an adviser to Pope Francis, said: “If it were up to me, I would revise the requirement that priests have to be celibate. Experience has shown me that this is something we need to seriously think about.”
The church had “lost many great priests because they chose marriage”, he said in an interview with the Times of Malta.
There was a place for celibacy but the church also had to take into consideration that priests sometimes fall in love, and were forced to choose between that and their vocation, he said. “Some priests cope with that by secretly engaging in sentimental relationships.”
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