Priest's book disputes mandatory celibacy

[struggle4progress]

By Andrew Welsh-Huggins, The Associated Press
January 27, 2007

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio — The former seminary president who sparked a national debate on the impact of gays entering the Roman Catholic priesthood is now tackling another sensitive issue, adding his voice to those advocating an end to mandatory celibacy.

"Celibacy used to go with priesthood as fish went with Fridays," said the Rev. Donald Cozzens. "Over the past 40 to 50 years, I would argue that more and more Catholics are questioning the need to link celibacy with priesthood." ...

"I am trying to say to the church, the charism of celibacy needs to be celebrated, the obligation of celibacy needs to be reviewed," he said.

Cozzens teaches religious studies at John Carroll, a Jesuit school. At the time of his 2000 book he was president of St. Mary Seminary in Cleveland ...

http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/religion_and_ethics/article/0,1375,VCS_151_5308440,00.html

[RC]

1. Priests should be married, kids, the whole 9 yards.

How else are they going to lead by example?
I know, I know, they already are and that is what needs to change. Celibacy is the root cause of a lot of the evil of the Catholic Church.
We are all sexual beings no matter what the sociopaths tell us. Allow priests to date and mate as we are designed to do.

[struggle4progress]

3. I'm inclined to agree: but since I'm not Catholic, Catholics may not value my opinion on this

[Igel]

7. I partly agree.

Celibacy was the response to a lot of evil in the Catholic Church.

But I'm one of those "if he can't guide his own family, how can he guide a congregation" folks. I'm also about as far from being a Catholic as you can get and have the Xian mainstream still seriously entertain the idea that you're Xian.

[TheDebbieDee]

2. I'm not Catholic, but.............

I've always thought it was unnatural to expect a group of PEOPLE, any group of PEOPLE to forego sex.

The reason sex is so pleasurable (if done correctly, that is) is so that PEOPLE won't stop doing it.

And please note that I mentioned nothing about homosexuality or heterosexuality. Nature or God assumes that enough pleasurable sex will be had to insure the continuation of the species.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. Celibacy wasn't mandatory for the first 1100 years, and it still isn't

in the Eastern Orthodox Church. (The common Russian name Popov means "son of a priest.")

The practice has led to a lot of problems:

heterosexual priests and their "housekeepers" or "nieces"
pedophiles joining the priesthood because it's an excuse to avoid adult sex and have easy access to children
widespread alcoholism driven by loneliness

[TheDebbieDee]

5. I saw a documentary on the History Channel.......

yes, the History Channel, that alleges that this whole idea of Catholic Priests being celibate was first put forward by a man who was later known as St. Augustine (maybe not St. Augustine, I need to research the name).

Supposedly, this man lead a life that made him the Hugh Hefner of his time. And all of a sudden he decided to promote celibacy for priests!

Edited because it may have been a St. other than St. Augustine.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. Well, the History Channel isn't always to be trusted

I've caught them in some serious factual errors. This is apparently one of those times.

Christianity came under the influence of Greek and Roman philosophies that said the body was evil and the spirit was good. There were a lot of people running around extolling the virtues of celibacy in the early days, and not just for priests.

Augustine wasn't quite Hugh Hefner--he lived with the same woman for something like twelve years without marrying her, and they had a son. He dabbled in various philosophies and finally became Christian under the influence of his mother Monica.

I'm a little fuzzy on the chronology, but it seems that when he entered the priesthood, his girlfriend was considered an unsuitable wife because she was of a lower class and not Christian, so he sent her away. (Some believe that this was under heavy pressure from Monica.)

He considered marrying some upper-class women but eventually decided upon celibacy. If you read his autobiography, The Confessions, this is a particularly obnoxious part, because he goes into this drama queen mode about how hard it is to be celibate. This was more of a "Hugh Hefner" period than before, since he admits to having visited prostitutes. Yet, if he had married the woman he sent away, this wouldn't have been a problem.

However, Augustine was only a local bishop and had no power to control the entire Catholic church, even though he was an influential philosopher who shaped a lot of Catholic doctrine. The celibacy rule came about because priests were passing their parishes and jobs down to their sons, and the Pope wanted to make sure that all the property was clearly in the Church's hands.

In the Eastern Orthodox church, priests may marry as long as they do so before ordination.