QOD: Celibacy
Given the latest Catholic Church scandal… is it time to rethink the vow of celibacy?
Senior Church figures in Germany meanwhile called for priestly celibacy to be reviewed, a tradition Benedict defended on Friday as a “the sign of full devotion” and of an “entire commitment to the Lord”.
The Church “should reflect on whether there are . . . conditions that favour abuse,” the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily cited ZdK head Alois Glueck as saying, citing loosening celibacy regulations as “one way”.
I agree with both statements. Celibacy should be reviewed and there are conditions that favor abuse. First, the vow of celibacy immediately rules out a lot of people for priesthood by demanding the repression of one the strongest natural drives. And given the fact that only men can be priests it also strikes me as an insult to women – as if marrying or having sex with women was somehow unholy and unworthy.
As far as the “conditions that favor abuse” point I completely agree because when a priest breaks the vow of celibacy he cannot openly break it. Immediately, it becomes an act of secrecy. And control, because silence is necessary. Add to that an institution that has moved heaven and earth to cover up the sins of their priests and you achieve favorable conditions, even a safe haven for predators.
Now, I am not trying to paint all priests with the same brush (that’s not fair), but there’s no denying that the Catholic Church has a big problem – a problem that their leaders have gone out of their way to cover up rather than address. It’s pretty bad when the words “pedophile priest” go together with the same ease of “pit-bull attack.” Perhaps removing the celibacy requirement would be a good first step. And while I don’t believe celibacy leads to pedophilia I do believe the rule is so broad that it forces all infractions underground and into the shadows… where not only can’t they be discussed, but they must be covered up.
I struggled with this post mainly because the vow of celibacy cover all sexual acts – which I believe is one of the main problems. The vow of celibacy is as expansive as it is restrictive.
Note: I am not bashing anyone’s religion, nor am I promoting celibacy as the cure-all. I don’t have all the answers on this question. I only know something is not working.
Tags: Catholic Church
The church rules out a lot of people automatically – 50% of the population and then the other 49% of people who are the correct gender but want to marry someday.
I don’t think celibacy is the problem, necessarily. I think the issue is that the hierarchy is rigid and authoritarian and its first instict is to protect itself. I’m sure having people in the power who don’t really understand the life the rest of us lead doesn’t help at all. It seemed rather naive, for example, for bishops to think that the pedophiles could pray it away.
The reason I think the vow of celibacy should go away is for precisely the reason you stated, UI, it rules out a lot of people – honest people who realize they can’t practice celibacy.
Jesus said, “go forth and make disciples of all people…” not “go forth and make disciples of celibate men”. If they would open up the priesthood to all, they might have a prayer of saving themselves. The Catholic Church is in more trouble than it ever has been previously as information and “liberal” ideas such as equality are available to more people. Adapt or die.
I’m not here to defend the way the bishops have handled the scandal of abusive priests or whether celibacy is the right policy. But I think it’s a mistake to connect celibacy and child sexual abuse.
With the church, we are looking at incidents covering 5 or 6 decades coming to light in just the last few years. If we were looking at new cases as they developed, the percentage of priests accused of abuse would be no higher than any other group — parents, close relatives, neighbors, coaches, teachers, etc. In fact, a 2006 report by the US Department of Health and Human Services said that about 66 percent of sexual abuse perpetrators are parents, other relatives, unmarried partners of parents, friends or neighbors. Only 0.5 percent are classed as “professionals,” among whom clergy are a subset.
An Associated Press report in 2007 found that between 2001 and 2005 nearly 2600 public school teachers were disciplined (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/21/AR2007102100144.html) and many more cases went unreported.
Does this make abuse by priests any less disgusting or tragic? Of course not. I just think people who believe there is a causal relationship between celibacy and abuse are mistaken.
The online abuse of me can commence now.
I thought the reason the Catholic Church has lasted so long is that they were able to adapt to change. Are those days over?
I agree Mike, I don’t think celibacy equates to abuse. I think authoritarianism encourages abuse. I think part of the response of the church was due to authoritarianism (protect the church first) and an institution run by people who don’t have experience in the real world. You’re right that abuse is not higher than the avg. population, but it’s not lower either but it’s given a place of trust that other institutions are not given.
Another Mike, I don’t think celibacy leads to pedophilia either. What I do think is that the cover-up the church orchestrated created a safe haven. And my biggest problem with the scandal is the cover-up. Those in charge knew these priests were predators and did nothing.
Actually, that’s not true. They did worse than nothing. They moved these offenders to fresh pastures with fresh prey. I’m not a religious person, but there’s a special place in hell for those bishops, cardinals, etc. In my book, what these “men of god” did was worse than the crime.
U.I. , the Catholic Church’s history is not one of adapting to change; it is one of killing and torturing people who didn’t change to suit the Church. As soon as they weren’t allowed to do those things anymore, they began losing influence. How anybody can remain in that organization in light of its past and recent history is beyond me.
There is zero evidence to support the statement that “abuse [by Catholic Priests] is not higher than the avg. population.”
This is what we don’t know pandora, I think: Those in charge knew these priests were predators and did nothing. The question to me is whether they just didn’t understand that these priests were predators and that you can’t pray away the pedophilia or whether they looked at the problem and just didn’t care enough. I think it’s probably more of the former than the latter.
Or you can guess that they looked at the problem and cared only about themselves and their institution and did more work to protect that rather than the children in their charge. Witness: the Archbishop of Ireland is silent and resistant to resignation (I heard on the news this AM that he said he would resign only if the Pope asked him to) after he was party to covering up the actions of a pedophile priest. That coverup included requiring the children to sign an oath of secrecy and NOT reporting the abuse to the police.
And this is the thing that I think is killing them over this — an absolute priority of protecting themselves (and trying to preserve some of that old tyme infallibility) at any cost.
The Catholic Church isn’t doing away with hierarchical forms. It IS hierarchical forms. That’s how she rolls. If you want a different system, be a Quaker.
But celibacy isn’t the problem. Child abuse is. This suggestion is just to divert attention from that.
I think you’re right Cassandra that it doesn’t really matter what their motives were, the consequences of their actions are more important then why they did it.
This abuse scandal is now reaching up to the Pope himself. He allowed a priest convicted of abuse to continue his priesthood.
I guess one thing I don’t understand is why so many families didn’t go to the police in the first place. Were they looking for the Church to help them?
Well, first of all, they expected the church to remove the guy. And the church did that. They figured he was relocated to a research or administrative position, no access to kids, and given effective help.
MOST child abuse isn’t reported to anyone. Who wants to bring their traumatized 8 year old into a 4 month trial? They thought the Church handled it.
The Church should have been purged with fire back in the 1990s. A strong and angry Pope should have strode through the land defrocking priests, closing seminaries, putting oversight rules in place, and denouncing the pederasts in a voice like thunder. Instead we had an old man waving in a wheelchair with Ratzinger pulling the strings.
And speaking of abuse, let’s not forget this happy fellow:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7060354.ece
I wonder how many children he has “exorcised?”
My grandma (she’s 95 now and grew up in a big, almost exclusively Catholic town) used to tell me that she always knew exactly what boys would end up as priests. She said they were always the nice boys that didn’t tease the girls and she never understood why their parents used to practically force them into the priesthood.
I guess parents back then would rather have their boys living in celibacy than living with other boys.
What’s interesting here is that there is a bit of a double standard when it comes to celibacy and the Catholic Church. Eastern-rite Catholic priests residing outside of the US are allowed to marry, like their Orthodox brethern. I remember visiting my ex’s family in Upstate NY. They belonged to the Eastern-rite church and across the street from that parish was a Roman-rite church. The Eastern-rite priest had come from Canada and was married with kids. This resulted in a little controversy in this small town. Also, doesn’t the church allow Espiscopal/Anglican priests who are married to become Catholic priests without divorcing their wives? I don’t believe these priests have to take a vow of celibacy.
UI–that’s where the generational disconnect comes in. Before all this blame–and believe me, I can’t stomach any of this–NO ONE talked about this. Only now (well, last decade or so), do people talk about it so freely. The “victim” found their own way to cope–either avoidance, gathering or whatever. The other piece being compliant, because of the whole authority thing. No doubt many of the parents didn’t know, and carry their own guilt. It wasn’t a classification then of “predator”, or “survivor”, or “pedophile”. It was just maybe “creep”. And not always a creep. Sometimes a mom or dad may have felt the same way–but believe me, if you didn’t want to go on that retreat and they didn’t have a clue, you risked a “woopin” for being disrespectful or behaving like a sloth. These were difficult times for anyone who may have suffered through this–but it was a very lonesome journey, for what we call a victim now–and not a critical mass of children or people in any one area to establish any kind of pattern, MO, support group (ha), or reporting mechanism. It was a whole different time. Now anyone after say 1990 who was a “victim”–got a whole lot more traction–the world was onto this, and folks now know your kind and aren’t gonna take it anymore…..and God Bless to flush ’em all out. But I do think moving forward, the church is being much more proactive in talking about this, etc. I always seemed to have one of mine in Catholic school somewhere, and they really did come home with papers, and letters in regards to reporting etc…Trust me, all religions deal w/ this–just catholics have their own school system, so hence the more numbers. But, I did take my renewal of this topic for my continuing ed. stuff from the Episcopalians–with their own blemishes of concern. It is done.
Actually, UI, we do know that they knew – and that’s the problem and the crime.
Decades ago, my cousin was sexually abused by a priest. He told his parents and they called the Parish. Years later he wondered why they didn’t call the police. Good question.
That said, I have a cousin who is a priest and a very good friend who is also a priest. Both of whom I admire greatly. I am not stereotyping anyone but the hierarchy of the church who valued covering their asses far more than protecting children. Cassandra links to having children sign a gag order. WTF? And this is where we find the crime escalating. Seriously, the hierarchy of the church, with their constant cover-ups, made the situation worse. There is no excuse for them.
Joanne, my kids did a spell in catholic schools, as well. And I can tell you we didn’t receive any papers on this. In fact, I had a run-in with a Sister Joan about the bad press. Honestly, I had no idea what she was talking about since the school my kids attended was closing and I was focused on that.
But no… she was complaining about the bad press associated with child abuse. I was speechless – but only for a few seconds. Then I exploded. Was she really defending these priests and the higher ups who allowed them to flourish? Why yes, yes, she was, and I just didn’t understand the stress associated with being a priest. Really? Ever compare a rectory to a convent?
I’m with, anon. It’s time for a good purging.
Just to clarify–that was Sister Joan and not Sister Joanne. I hear ya, Pandora–and purge it should be–NOW–because we are better than the skeletons of yesterday, and the supports are in place. BTW–my last “head-on” paper coming home was this past January I believe.
The Church is successful because it is a beacon of stability in an uncertain world. I support the Church which ever way it goes on this.
The Catholic Church yesterday came out in favor of Obama’s health care plan. Supporting the church is always a good idea.
It is nice to know that the “beacon of stability in an uncertain world,” understands the this nation cannot do without the President’s version of Health Care Reform…
Just shows that mainstream is supportive of the reform, even if the kooks we hear of on TV, have a monopoly of airtime…
The Catholic Church yesterday came out in favor of Obama’s health care plan.
Nope… that was the Catholic Health Association (the hospitals) that endorsed Obama’s HCR. The USCCB is still opposed on abortion grounds (USCCB supports the House bill with the Stupak amendment). I don’t think the Vatican has said anything on it.
Married priests were outlawed by the Roman Catholic church due to many and manifest scandals caused by Bishops and other high ranking clergymen passing on lucrative parishes and bishrophics to their sons in the middle ages.Remember,the Catholic church was largely responsable for holding Western civilization together.As we now see,this decision has brought another dire schism within the Holy Body.I,for one,want to see married priests,women priests and openly homosexual priests.And this comes from an x altar-boy who the notorious Fr.DeLuca made an unsuccessful grab for.