YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET

The Catholic Church should end the celibacy vow, a group of senior Priests in Germany has said.    
In an open letter, the group of 11 high ranking Clerics said every man should have the right to choose to take the vow or not. 

The retired Clerics were ordained in Cologne in 1967, and wrote the letter as part of a review of their 50 years in the Catholic church. 

“We think, every Catholic should be allowed to choose if they would rather be celibate or not, regardless of whether they want to work as Priests or not - just like in the Protestant Church or the Orthodox church, really, every church but the Catholic Church.”

The group argues that celibacy causes many modern Priests to suffer from seclusion and believe the men have little to gain from church-imposed solitude. 

"What moves us is the experience of loneliness - as elderly people who are unmarried because our office required this from us, we feel it vividly on some days after 50 years on the job… We agreed to this clerical life because of our jobs, but we didn't choose it," the group wrote. 

The canonical discipline, believed to have been introduced in the fourth century and codified into Church law centuries later, requires men to be unmarried in order to be ordained, and to practice sexual abstinence. 

Proponents of clerical celibacy see it as “a special gift of God” where they can devote themselves to their Bishops more freely. 

However, according to theologian Wunibald Müller, many Priests struggle with the vow. He says some overcompensate for their  loneliness by over-eating, drinking to excess or worse.  "Even if you decide to live celibate, your sexuality is still there," he said.  "If someone suppresses their desires, for warmth, for intimacy, this can backfire - they are more likely to cross a line, to abuse their position of trust to get intimacy."

For his part, the Holy Father seems more and more clear in favoring the possibility of married Priests, at least under certain circumstances. One thing is for certain: he believes it is a decision the Bishops (in their local conferences) should make, not just he and his collaborators in Rome.

A key development along this path came in mid-June at the latest round of talks on Vatican reform that Francis held with his advisory Council of Cardinals (C9).

It was announced that the C9 proposed the possibility of allowing National Bishops’ Conferences the authority, now held by the Congregation for the Clergy, to decide whether or not to ordain an unmarried or widowed permanent deacon to the priesthood or to allow a widowed deacon to remarry.

The proposal may be the first step towards recognizing the discretion which Bishops of a nation or region rightfully enjoy to decide, without the need for Vatican approval, regarding the dispensation of certain current restrictions on Priestly ordination. It will take time, but it is a beginning that could lead to further development. 

The principle is clearly being enunciated now and Pope Francis appears to have no fear in giving voice to such a proposal.

But the Holy Father and the Church itself need to understand that this is only the first step toward the eventual and universal acceptance of married Priests.  

To think that one part of the Church will decide to revive the most ancient tradition of a married Priesthood and that other parts will be denied that same privilege is disingenuous at best.

Of course, we should prepare ourselves for the onslaught of negative criticism that will accompany any serious discussion of clerical celibacy.  There will be those Bishops, some in positions of influence, who will decry any reform which pertains to Clerical celibacy as the "final nail in the coffin of the Church."

These Bishops believe that they, and they alone, can best defend against the Church’s demise by holding to a strict and rigid adherence to norms and rubrics, an obsession to control and rule Christ’s faithful and decide the ordering of ecclesial life.

I have suggested before that the upcoming Synod on Youth and Vocations will be the forum in which the issue of optional celibacy with the Latin Church will be discussed and resolved.

To those who say that Amoris Laetitae created a firestorm of controversy and division within Church ranks, I say "just wait!" 

As Al Jolson used to tell his audiences at the beginning of his act:  “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”