In his column entitled ‘A scandal called priestly celibacy’ (The Sunday Times, August 8), Fr Joe Borg shies away from tackling obligatory clerical celibacy head on.
Given that he paints a comprehensive picture of how a growing number of people in our culture perceive clerical celibacy either as a waste of time, or perversion, or the root of several of Catholic Church’s problems, I would have expected Fr Borg to rebut these misconceptions in more detail.
Instead, Fr Borg focused on the Pope’s exhortation on the “scandalous” aspect of celibacy during the late-night vigil concluding the Year of Priests on June 10. Why Fr Borg refrains from conveying his opinion on the noble vocation of mandatory celibacy, as the Pope seems to have been alluding to, boggles the mind.
There is no question in my mind that voluntary celibacy is a noble goal, a great sign of faith and of the presence of God in the world.
Celibacy is the renunciation of marriage, implicitly or explicitly made, for the more perfect observance of chastity by all those who receive the Sacrament of Orders in any of the higher grades. The vow of celibacy is not an essential aspect of the priesthood regardless of the statements of recent popes who claim that they lack the authority to change the requirement for ordination.
It is becoming increasingly clear that celibacy is honoured more in breach than in observance. According to Richard Sipe, the basic figures of Roman Catholic clergy sexual activity recorded in his 25-year ethnographic study still has validity and presents an accurate profile of celibate observance in the US. At any one time at least 50 per cent of Roman Catholic clergy are sexually active in one way or another (Celibacy – Sex and Research, June 2009).
In all fairness, Mr Sipe’s research is limited to the US; however, he argues that every study he has done in connection with other cultures worldwide, regardless of the method used, came to the conclusion that between 45 and 50 per cent of the priests, respondents or observed, were sexually active in the previous three-year period.
In 1993, Cardinal José Sanchez, secretary of the Dicastery for the Clergy, faced an interview from BBC television, who asked his opinion on studies, recent at the time, which claimed that at any one time, 45 to 50 per cent of Catholic clergy were not practising celibacy. The Cardinal’s response was: “I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of those figures.”
Mr Sipe’s research and mental health counselling lead him to believe three factors contributed to the steady corrosion of the credibility of the Catholic Church: the Catholic doctrine on sex; the psychosexual immaturity among a significant proportion of the clergy; and clerical loneliness.
According to Mr Sipe, theological writing about sex (and one cannot consider celibacy and disregard sex) is fraught with judgments of behaviour that is labelled intrinsically evil.
He opines that Catholic teaching on masturbation, contraception, and homosexual acts are among the most “inherently evil” acts among the multiple choices a person can make. It makes no sense that pastoral understanding and forgiveness (as well as authoritative judgments on human sexuality) are in the hands of priests bound by obligatory celibacy and perpetual chastity (Celibacy Today: Practice and Pretence).
Mr Sipe argues that a significant proportion of the clergy worldwide are psychosexually immature since the clerical system and culture fosters and preserves this immaturity that can, and does, allow priests and bishops to absolve themselves from personal responsibility for their sexual behaviour.
His assertion was substantiated by a paper delivered by Conrad Bears to bishops in 1971 that outlined the problems of psychosexual immaturity of a majority of Catholic clergy.
The study concluded that two-thirds of priests were psychosexually underdeveloped (Celibacy – Sex and Research).
Obligatory celibacy militates against living a life of chastity. It compounds the problem of loneliness among the clergy. It challenges the daily combat that St Augustine wrote about “where the victory is rare”. St Augustine acknowledged that chastity is the most difficult Christian conflict and that it is a daily battle.