April 15, 2010
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Weighing In
The recent Xanga-wide trend (no doubt a reflection of a similar trend in the media) of Pope-, priest- and Catholic-bashing at worst and constructive criticism/inquiry at best has had me all sorts of busy trying to clear up misconceptions or defend against outright attack. One thing that the recent buzz has me very aware of is all the misunderstanding around the issue of priestly celibacy/chastity (the two are a little different).
So I thought that I would offer to make my own thoughts, reflections and experiences available to Xanga, so that people who want to know more hopefully will learn more, those who think it is an impossible, miserable or fruitless way of life will see otherwise, and those who think every priest in the Church is a child-molester can no longer through stones at an anonymous strawman but may instead throw them at me and contemplate what that means, now that their target has a face and bleeds.
If anyone out there (and do extend the invitation to others who may be interested) have questions about priestly celibacy/chastity that they would like to hear my thoughts on (I can’t guarantee answers!), please leave them in the comments below and I will try and post my responses as I am able, though it may be a few weeks (papers are due soon!). God bless all of you!
-Jacob
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Comments (27)
Offering yourself to the wolves? You are a brave man.
Especially because sometimes the wolves are actually very poorly dressed shepherds.
Because you are a human being, I wince for you–while I click recommend.
You’re a good man, Jacob.
It’s hard enough to try and explain or defend chastity when you are a layperson, these days it’s getting challenging to even be a priest. I rec’ed your entry in case someone among my friends/subscribers might want to ask you questions, and hopefully they will be respectful to you.
Personally, I can understand why the discipline of priestly celibacy exists. To devote yourself to a life of holiness and service, it just makes sense. How can you put your flock first when you have a wife and children who will always come before them? I’ve had more trouble with the prohibition of women from the priesthood than with the issue of celibacy.
IMO the scandal has less to do with celibacy and more to do with the fact that pedophiles will be attracted to professions and situations where they will have access to children – priests, teachers, youth leaders, etc.
I look forward to seeing what you have to say…
Did the same as FoliageDecay – bit my lip and Rec’d this!
Why does the Catholic Church require priests to be celibate at all? I understand the concept of devoting their lives toward service to God and God alone, but how does having a family take away from that? I would think that having a family would make the priest a better spouse of the church and of Christ, a better father for the whole congregation, essentially eliminate the roots leading to “child molester” issues (though I agree that there are very few Catholic priests committing such heinous actions and are giving the rest of them a bad name), and level the priests’ minds down to earth to prevent them from becoming prideful when in their given position. Monks are also celibate but they live with their family–their brothers–who struggle alongside each other and aid each other.
Martha
Your average priest is a superlative hero. The Holy Spirit wafts off of them like sweet perfume.
People who use a paltry few pervert wolves in sheeps clothing to trash these incredible men and the Church (Christ’s presense on earth) they serve are simply servants of the evil one.
As one of your Protestant Xanga readers, I guess I have more of a procedural question than an theological one. When a priest (or any church official) is found to be guilty of molestation/harassment/etc., why can’t he simply be de-frocked as a priest? I’m a teacher, and in the education system, if a teacher were to be convicted of these types of crimes, he or she would probably lose their teaching license forever. If a supervisor knows that there is a problem, why have some of them had the priest just moved to another church? It seems like a good portion of the outrage over this issue is that the accused priests are shuffled around and continue to harm parishioners.
I look forward to seeing what other questions are asked, and what thoughts you’ll share. Best wishes with your papers and other end of the semester stressors also!
@LoBornlyte -
Boy you raise a high standard for me, sister!
@FoliageDecay -
Historically, I only have to worry about lions.
Thank you for your kindly wince; we will see what happens! At least there are only a few countries that actually crucify people any more, and the United States isn’t one of them!
@Ancient_Scribe - It’s God that makes you what you are, dummy. You are what you are because of grace.
@LoBornlyte -
Or will be what I will be (seven more years!). Thank you so much for your support.
@Ancient_Scribe -
You’ve got Grace right now to help you through the process.
@liferemainsbeautiful -
the jedi were like that to
XP
For me I understand the bits abouty celibacy as not so much about sex but about the time it takes to love and raise a family. To really minister to a congregation takes time. You need to be available on holidays and at 12 at night and during Christmas lunch. And people feel their need more at times when others are with their families. Now days you hear about pastors having days off and Me time and all kinds of wierd things. I work with 80 different churches in my community and people are suffering because their pastors are too busy with their families, their hobbies and their friends. We (protestants) turn out pastors by the thousands and yet protestants are needing antidepressants by the thousands. I honestly believe its because the church has become too busy with projects and does not have enough time for its people The true calling of a pastor is to minister to and serve his congregation. Its not a calling to be taken lightly. Sexual abstinence is not the goal of celibacy – freeing up the priest to serve is.
I defend priestly celibacy all the time. I know a lot of reasons, but my favorite is that in a culture so saturated by sex, priests and religious stand up and say that you don’t need sex to be happy . . . that there is something (Someone!) more out there.
I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on this and on how priestly celibacy can ultimately help us laity.
there definitely is a problem among the priests with child abuse. A $3Billion problem so far…and inflating. It’s worse when a priest abuses a child – usually a MALE child – than when a fireman does…because of the TRUST issue…because he is a man of God. And you know what Jesus says such a person deserves: “a millstone around his neck and thrown to the bottom of the sea.”
Not only that, but for the priest to continue saying Mass without repentence…well, that’s just horrible, and completely invalidates that person’s entire ministry…
recently, cardinal Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, – who – obviously is not professionally trained to deal with this issue – claims that homosexual priests are the abusers, mostly because boys are the children that are most frequently the victims.
This explanation is tactically clever in that it throws blame on a social group that is largely critical of the Pope and the Church. However, it must be said, it is without empiracle evidence. In fact, studies on child abuse FAIL TO SHOW A PREDATORY PROFILE…in other words…ANYONE can be a child abuser.
So I wish the cardinal would keep his mouth shut (probably impossible) and stop dealing politically with a spiritual malady. Second, I much prefer what the Pope has been doing: listening, and calling for repentence within the Church, and initiating a change of modus operandi (way overdue, and due only to the press and victim’s outcry.) Third, a better forum must be found than trading sound bytes in the press.
Maybe, if Europe does arrest the Pope, it can come out in court. On that issue, I think there are some grounds to try the Church as an international criminal organization…but perhaps not convict it, or the Pope.
Thank you for doing this. No one’s comments will hold the weight that yours does. I will share your post with the world.
I’ve had several people email me comments along those lines, and I’ve done my best to defend. I actually criticized the Catholic Church for priests’ celibacy when I was younger and when I was in RCIA. Then I had a real need as my life crumbled around me the same year I became Catholic. Who was there for me? Not my married pastor from my other church…her help was well-intentioned, but didn’t help me heal. But a nun who spent 3 hours with me was the greatest minister every. There was something extra POWERFUL in the way she ministered to me. No, she hadn’t been in a scary relationship like I had. And yet she had the insight, the discernment, and her purity and set-apartness made her prayer with me so powerful that it felt like she had a more direct line to God than the rest of us. There is power in being set apart. That summer, I also turned to 2 different priests for spiritual direction when I went home to the States for 2mos (I was living in Japan at the time and teaching school) and those priests also had a set-apartness to them. I learned first hand that there’s a mysterious strength in turning oneself over to God the way priests and religious do. It’s hard for me to articulate this to critics because it’s more something I experienced than I can explain.
Satan atacks God’s people through their spirituality. Priests are attacked differently than married Protestant pastors, yet it often falls under the sex category. The media and the ignorant are assisting those attacks. Thanks for being willing to stand up to that.
I guess my question and situation are the same as emilita213. I am a teacher and if this happened in my proffession the person would no longer have that position in the school. Why does that not happen here?
I know of teachers who just a thought that they “might” have ruined his or her career when NOTHING happened also. So I understand investigating and truely finding out what happened, so that someone’s career is not lost forever.
I understand grace and forgiveness…. that goes that these people commiting abuse agianst children need that also. But why hide it? Why were they not defrocked? They also need help and counseling and love and mercy. Sin brought to the light can then be given room to heal, grow and change. If it stays in the dark, hidden then it just continues to fester like an infected wound.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us! I appreciate your insights.
Hi, I’m a Catholic convert (2004). When you reply, let your readers know that celibacy is a discipline required in the Latin Rite. Eastern Rite Catholics such as the Byzantines & Maronites allow priests to marry, but not Bishops. From a Biblical perspective: when Jesus was confronted by the Jewish leaders who deny the Resurrection, He reminded them that in Heaven, humans are like the angels–they do not marry nor do they give their children to marry. I see priests as being a bit closer to God because they are living like that now. Finally, as to the questions about why priests weren’t de-frocked in the past: the Sacrament of Reconciliation has the intent of forgiveness and a restoration to holiness. The seal of the Confessional is absolute. Back in the day, I don’t think priests understood the complexity and consequences of pedophilia, and that pedophilia is usually something which is lifelong. In this day and age, the penance required for sex abuse is “turn yourself in to the authorities”. I hope these ideas help.
its all my fault
Not sure what to say really, but the church as a whole is rather a let down and under the present pope is a farce. The church has a reputation of hiding very serious issues, mostly to do with child sex abuse which it has known about it for years and done little or nothing to stop that, the pope being a prime example of that. What sort of message does that say to the faithful, let alone those that are non believers.
I am sure you are good man and a brave one and that but the fact remains that the church and not just catholic is a mess of its own making, it needs new blood that is willing to stamp down on child abuse, actions are louder than words.
The problem isn’t that priests molest children (obviously that is the problem, but it is not a problem unique to the catholic church or any organization with children and adults), the problem is that the catholic church appeared to try to hide it, and defend the child molesters. That is a serious problem.
I wonder why no one makes an issue out of the way Buddhist monks choose to lead their lives but Catholic priests get all the flak. Just saying……
@Umnenga - That is probably the best explanation I have come across yet.
Only got one thing to say, Jacob – that picture you’re using as your background is making it REALLY hard for me to read your site!
I will admit, as much as I uphold priests as men of God, I have myself always wondered why they could not be married. (I know a FEW are) … I mean, our word speaks of a man with “one” wife. I do understand St. Paul’s words on the message that it is better for a man not to be married to service our Lord, but, I don’t quite understand it as an “adoption” for all when the bible also says that to be a preist you should have “one” wife. ? Also, at the beginning of the bible, it tells us to be fruitful and multiply. O_o It’s all always had me a little confused… I think I could understand if some preists remained celibate, I’m just not sure why they all must. No foolin’ here, I would think that strong men such as yourselves would WANT to raise sons in the way that you learn/are.
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