IRELAND
Herald
Friday April 13 2012
THE new survey that says that Irish Catholics have “liberal” views on clergy having sex is hardly startling. Christians have always been preoccupied with what goes on in the pants department.
Some of the early Christians held views that would make Pope Benedict look like a liberal. Take the Gospel of Thomas, for instance, which advocates celibacy and tells the story of how the Apostle convinced an Indian princess to plead a bad headache to her husband after hearing Thomas wax lyrical about “filthy intercourse”.
The Church, in fairness, has taught that this is heresy, but in its history has come close to these extreme views on sex, not least in the Ireland of the 1930s up to the 1960s.
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