A priest with some wise and practical ideas on celibacy. He gets to the nitty gritty of what people think optional celibacy will accomplish and gives his inside view of why it’s all bunk.
Some people say that we should at least discuss optional celibacy. Why? What will it accomplish? Should we discuss every crackpot idea that comes along when the majority of people, including the majority of those affected by the proposal, know that idea is not good?
Let’s discuss ending fasting during Lent. Oh why not? It’s a discipline after all, and a lot of us get hungry during Lent. We should discuss changing the discipline, even if most Catholics, including every bishop, don’t think a change is a good idea.
Update: The link was broken but now it’s fixed.
Austin,
Did you read the article. The author addresses that very point and says that most married Protestant ministers who become Catholic priests tell him that their own experiences are the best arguments for a celibate preisthood because of the obstacles and problems they have to endure. (Married priests I’ve talked to have said this to me as well.)
There’s no doubt that they are just as committed as celibates, and I’m sure that some are better than average homilists and managers, but that’s not the sum total of the priesthood or what this debate is about.
Is a normative married Latin-rite priesthood good for the Church, for the priests, for their potential families? Is it an efficacious sign in the world if we through out the symbolic value of men who sacrifice the good for the sake of Christ?
Oh yeah, because they’d done such a good job keeping the guys who diddle kids out of the priesthood.