BishopAccountability.org
	Time for a Rethink on Celibacy By Stephen Mulholland Daily Dispatch March 24, 2010 http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=389555 SOUTH AFRICA -- WE ROMAN Catholics are, to the best of my religious knowledge, which is not vast, the only denomination in which celibacy is a requirement for those wishing to serve as officers of the church. Some, such as Islam, reserve such offices for males but do not impose a vow of celibacy on them. In Catholicism here is one approach: "Clerics are obliged to observe perfect and perpetual continence for the sake of the kingdom of heaven and therefore are bound to celibacy which is a special gift of God by which sacred ministers can adhere more easily to Christ with an undivided heart and are able to dedicate themselves more freely to the service of God and humanity." Some will quite reasonably argue that this is in conflict with the reality of the nature of man. St Thomas Aquinas, the greatest of Catholic scholars, himself has written in Summa Theologia: "It is in man's nature, like that of other animals, both before and after sin, to reproduce by intercourse, and nature has provided him with the organs needed for the purpose." He went on: "Rule by reason requires not that the pleasure should be less, but that the desire for it should be within reasonable bounds. Men who eat moderately can take as much pleasure in their food as gluttons do, but their desire doesn't wallow in the pleasure. In the state of innocence there would have been no great esteem for sexual abstinence, which we esteem nowadays not because it reduces fruitfulness but because it tempers lust." So, is it that the Church commands of its priests that they abstain from sexual relations in order to reduce the lust in their hearts? As we learn on a daily basis from newspapers, television and radio, some Catholic priests have abused their positions to take sexual advantage, sometimes, of young boys. Germany is the scene of the latest eruptions on this sensitive matter as revelations are published about abuse in some two- thirds of the country's 27 dioceses. Then there's the ongoing problem of abuse by Catholic priests in Ireland. Fox News reports that "Pope Benedict XV1 is urging Catholics not to pass judgments. The words came in response to the backlash some Irish bishops are facing for their handling of decades of clergy sexual abuse of minors. "The pontiff told pilgrims the faithful should humbly beg forgiveness for their own failings. While addressing the public, the pope said Irish bishops made grave errors of judgment. But he didn't blame Vatican policies of keeping the abuse secret, as victims have demanded. Some worshippers say the pope hasn't done enough." The BBC says that Pope Benedict's former diocese in Germany is facing daily allegations of physical and sexual abuse, the head of its new sex-abuse task force says. "It is like a tsunami," Elke Huemmeler told the Associated Press news agency. She said about 120 cases had come to light so far in Munich, about 100 of them at a boarding school run by monks. The Roman Catholic Church has been rocked by scandals involving priests in Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Austria and the Netherlands in recent months. As priestly numbers decline all over the world perhaps the time has arrived for Rome to reassess its position. This would enable good men and women (why not?) to devote their lives to the church and at the same time enjoy normal family and marital relations. Perhaps Aquinas should have the last word on this vexed topic: "… a sexual sinner doesn't intend to forsake God but to enjoy a sexual pleasure, and as a consequence abandons God." So, if sexual relations are permitted to the priesthood in normal family terms then such sexual sinning would surely decline in frequency while the Church would grow in membership.
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