XPost: alt.religion.christian.biblestudy, alt.religion.christian   
   roman-catholic, england.religion.misc   
   XPost: free.christians, hk.soc.religion.christianity   
   From: œ@att.net   
      
   Celibacy is Not the Problem   
      
   As naturally as flies gather on rotting meat, many people - usually   
   liberals, even (or especially) Catholics, in mainstream media - are   
   blaming clerical celibacy for this problem, and recommend making it   
   optional as a solution.   
   Let us quote again from one Michael Kramer, who was shown last time to   
   have no idea what he's talking about when it comes to the historical   
   development of mandatory celibacy. From his same article, Mar. 24:   
   The best guess from secular analysts is that celibacy doesn't itself   
   produce the twisted personality that causes some very few priests to   
   prey on children and young adolescents - although the problem of   
   arrested sexual development needs further study, since many would-be   
   priests enter seminaries as teenagers.   
   But even if celibacy doesn't cause such deplorable behavior, there's   
   ample reason to view it as bad policy anyway. First, says Marquette   
   University Theology Prof. Michael Fahey, "married priests would   
   emancipate the church because they would be better connected to normal   
   life. Unmarried priests are simply less sensitized to the needs of   
   children." And second, says Fahey, optional celibacy would rejuvenate   
   the clergy because the church is facing a manpower crisis.   
   During the past 30 years, as the number of Catholics has grown by   
   about 30%, the number of priests has declined by about 10%. There are   
   62.4 million U.S. Catholics and more than 2,500 parishes are without a   
   resident priest, in part because roughly 20,000 American priests have   
   left the clergy to marry during the past 25 years. The available pool   
   of men willing to become priests would increase if they could marry,   
   and their quality would likely improve as well.   
   The lid is being blown off that little deception (of which Kramer is   
   likely a victim rather than merely a perpetuator). Celibacy has been   
   blamed for nearly 40 years as one of the chief, if not the chief,   
   cause of the decline in priestly vocations; and, that decline has then   
   been used as an argument to end mandatory celibacy. A   
   soon-to-be-published book, by Michael S. Rose, argues instead that   
   good, solid, orthodox Catholic men, willing to embrace celibacy and to   
   devote their lives to the service of God and the Catholic Church, have   
   been turned away - if not actually driven away - from Catholic   
   seminaries in the USA. In droves. For decades.   
   Alas - and I am very sorry to have to say this - married clergy is no   
   cure-all palladium. Witness, for instance, the report of Bill Wineke,   
   a member of the United Church of Christ, in the Wisconsin State   
   Journal, Apr. 5:   
   Lest you become comforted thinking only Catholic priests can be   
   clerical perverts, you might want to subscribe to "Freethought Today,"   
   the monthly publication of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. It   
   runs a gleeful feature - one that usually covers a couple of pages -   
   called "Black Collar Crime Blotter." The blotter picks up newspaper   
   clippings about problem pastors from around the country and the result   
   isn't pretty.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)