[sinkspur]

But for the board to conclude that celibacy must be better explained sounds to me like a straight non-starter. What is there to explain? It means no sex, period. Not with women, not with men, not with nuns, not with priests, not with children, not with animals, not wiht oneself. One would expect that priests who are commnity pastors would possess sufficient intelligence to understand the concept of celibacy without having to have that concept especially explained to them.

Why is it self-evident? Up until twenty years ago, few Christian denominations prepared couples for marriage. I can tell you, as a Catholic seminarian from 1969-1976, that Catholic seminaries didn't talk about celibacy at all. Yep. As hormone-raging young adult males, we were simply left to our own devices to figure out how to deal with celibacy. Oh, we were told to pray a lot, but there was no psychological preparation, you were laughed at if you told your spiritual director that you had developed an "infatuation" with a woman. In fact, one priest told me that was a sure sign I didn't have a vocation, that I was attracted to women!

So, kosta, though things have changed dramatically, and men are much better prepared today, Catholic seminary education, prior to the 90s, was woefully inadequate in even mentioning celibacy, much less talking about how to deal with it in a candid and meaningful way.

[kosta50]

Well, when I first heard of "celibacy" I was a young teen. I asked my father what it meant and he said it was a vow the Catholic priests take not to have any sex. I never ever had any doubts as to what that meant. It means no sex. Which part of that is not clear?