Print Issue: May 30, 2002

Celibacy Rule Is Not Root Of Evil

By Father John Kieran, Commentary

Editorials and TV coverage analyzing certain aspects of the Catholic Church show the need for a better understanding of church beliefs and traditions. Clearly, misconceptions abound.

I am a celibate priest of 35 years. Happy, honored and privileged to have received God's calling to priesthood and ministry.

As a young man I had a girlfriend, a steady job and many opportunities. Life was good but not fully satisfying. I yearned for something more. I debated: How could I maximize my involvement in church and charity work? I decided that I should pursue the priesthood. I made my decision knowing that becoming a priest required accepting celibacy.

Recent news articles portray celibacy as "the" reason for several abnormalities in the church. The evil of pedophilia, shortage of priests, insensitivity to female issues all have been attributed to our policy of an unmarried priesthood. These conclusions are the opinions of the authors. They do not offer solid data to support their claim.

It is true, of course, that we have no evidence Christ mandated celibacy for his priests. Indeed, Peter was married, and for the first 300 years of Christianity, the norm seems to have been for a married clergy. To the present day clergy in the Eastern branches of the church are married.

In the Western (Roman) church there was a gradual swing to a celibate priesthood. In the 11th and 12th centuries, legal inheritance and the ownership of property by clergy became an issue. Various popes issued decrees directing that all clergy be unmarried.

Finally, the Second Lateran Council (1139) issued a binding decree requiring celibate clergy in the Western Church.

Church teaching today emphasizes that the requirement of celibacy is a "positive" undertaking. We priests embrace the single state not as avoidance. Nor is celibacy a put-down of marriage. Rather the celibate priest endeavors to offer himself more completely for God's work in the service of the church.

In practical and personal terms, celibacy is about one's love for Jesus and desire to live more completely the Gospel ideal. Our resolve is to imitate fully the ways and teachings of Jesus. Therefore, we stay single for "the sake of the kingdom of God." (Mt 19:12)

Included in our self-dedication to Jesus is also a commitment to the people of the church. The ordained priest becomes the "spouse" and "father" figure in the local community. After union with Jesus, the priest's total focus and service is to spiritually nurture those in his care. In practical terms, a Catholic congregation receives the undivided pastoral attention of its priests. This usually amounts to an extraordinary number of working hours.

Celibacy gets a bad rap in the press because it is counter to the "pro-sex" culture of our time. Our society is so accepting of liberal and immoral attitudes to sex that the thought of binding abstinence is passé.

Evidence of our sex-driven culture is everywhere. Notably in the 1.5 million elective abortions procured in the United States each year.

I grieve over the harm and embarrassment caused by pedophile priests. Their crimes permanently marred young lives and have maligned the priesthood in general. However, this scandal should not blind us to other more endemic moral problems in our country. I hope that when the present debacle is over, a proportionate effort and press coverage will be given to exposing the more numerous predators in the porn business and the more frequent problem of child abuse in the home.

However, using an escape ploy-such as using celibacy for problems in the Catholic Church-is not a real solution. Pedophile behavior and other sex crimes must be seen for what they are-the woeful violation of God's commandments and the teachings of Jesus.

The truth is individuals do evil things. So each perpetrator must admit to their failures and crimes, consent to justice and, above all, plead for God's mercy.

Father John Kieran is pastor of St. Pius X Church in Conyers. This article was reprinted with permission from the author. It appeared first in The Rockdale Citizen.