!!!!

I thank God for the gift of celibacy to his Church.  I write this fully aware of the burden celibacy can be for some priests, but I am more aware of the freedom, even liberation, which celibacy can give to priests who embrace it willingly, even joyfully, to love the people entrusted to their pastoral care.  I know that some priests fail to take advantage of that freedom, that liberation, and spend their lives in a way that is indistinguishable from the lifestyle of old, cranky, self-centered bachelors.  But I have known celibate priests who given of themselves to men, women and children entrusted to their pastoral care in legitimate ways that the married state would never have permitted.  Conversely, I have known married priests who, by the grace of God, have been able to similarly minister to their flock without neglecting to give generously of love to their spouse and children.

Marriage is an ever present temptation to celebate priests who are the object of stalking by women who feel that a spiritual and physical relationship with a priest is somehow a more immediate satisfying relationship with God;  that can be similar in some ways to the ancient practice of intercourse with the temple prostitutes.  I have known too many celibate priests who have left the priesthood by attempting marriage, only to have the  marriage fail in time leaving the divorced priest with neither the relationship of marriage nor ministerial priesthood.  While the media has taken great pains to search out and give a lot of publicity to those priests who have sinned against their promise of celibacy, it is a scandal that the media shows no interest in shining the spotlight of publicity on the protestant ministers and Jewish rabbis guilty of identical sins.

Celibacy is here to stay in the western Latin branch of the Roman Catholic Church even though, as Dr. Peters points out in his brief book review below, the majority of clerics in the same branch of the Roman Catholic Church here in the United States are married.  I have no feelings of hostility toward priests who are married and who serve the Church.  On the contrary, I have welcomed into the Church a number of former Anglican ministers, some celibate and some married, and I am fully supportive of the Ordinariates Pope Benedict XVI has established for Anglicans.

+RHG

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Book Review: Cattaneo, ed., Married Priests? (Ignatius, 2012)

by Dr. Edward Peters

I had been just about ready to comment on Married Priests? (Ignatius, 2012) when Benedict XVI announced his resignation and other matters came crowding in. Taking advantage of a respite now, let me return to this fine text.

It’s rare for a good book on a controverted topic to lend itself to a pick-up-and-put-down reading style, but Cattaneo and his essayists make possible exactly this approach to the question of married priests. These essays are short (many are under five pages), clear, practical, and faithful to the gift that celibacy in holy Order truly is.

As many following this topic know, I and others have been working for a resolution to the disconnect that currently exists between canon law and ancient tradition on one hand, and the assumptions of virtually all married clerics on the other, in regard to the obligation of continence as set out in Canon 277. Although Cattaneo’s text focuses on celibacy, his first several essayists lend, I suggest, still more weight to the argument that continence is the primary value at risk and that widespread inadvertence to continence makes it harder to appreciate celibacy in its own right.

Again, as I have argued elsewhere, celibacy, too, is in crisis today, from without the Church by those who blame it for—of all things—the sexual abuse of males by certain clerics, and from within the Church by the startling growth of a married diaconate (many American arch/dioceses now have more married clerics than celibate ones) and the sudden influx of thousands of married ministers as Catholic priests. Many Catholic men are wondering, Roman reiterations of the value of celibacy notwithstanding, whether actions speak louder than words and, if so, how it is they are asked to choose between Order and Matrimony (*) while so many others are not. Cattaneo’s writers help such young men think through these concerns with the mind of the Church.

I recommend this work warmly. + + +

(*) By the way, Cattaneo repeats a very common mistranslation of Presbyterorum ordinis 16 when he quotes it as saying that Vatican II “permanently [sic: lovingly (peramanter)] exhorts all those who have received the priesthood and marriage [sic: the priesthood in marriage (in matrimonio presbyteratum)] to persevere in their holy vocation …”. For more on this translation problem, see my article in Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly (Summer 2011).

Dr. Edward Peters | March 4, 2013 at 12:27 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/p25nov-zj