Posted on 04/26/2010 10:59:47 AM PDT by Steelfish
What Is A Life Without Sex Like?
Finlo Rohrer BBC News Magazine
The recent scandal over the handling of child abuse in the Catholic church has again focused attention on celibacy. But away from the arguments, what is it actually like to lead a life without having sex?
This is, we are told, a highly sexualised society.
HISTORY OF CELIBACY "The roots of celibacy are in all major religions except Judaism and Islam, and even these religions insist on pre-marital virginity, at least for women," says Elizabeth Abbott
For the Catholic Church, celibacy grew up for three reasons In interpretations of the Scriptures, celibacy was more perfect and desirable in God's eyes
Celibacy allowed priests/nuns and other devotees to consecrate their lives and thoughts to God Celibate priests were not a financial drain on the church
(snip)
In the 21st Century UK, indeed in almost all of the West, sexual imagery can be found in many places, and many young people expect to have a number of sexual partners before eventually settling down.
This perhaps may explain why the idea of a celibate lifestyle, as practised by the clergy of the Catholic Church, as well as adherents of other religions, causes a great deal of puzzlement among non-believers.
"In our sex-dominated society, people tend to view celibacy as a form of sexual anorexia - a sad and lonely state at best, unnatural at worst," says Elizabeth Abbott.
Jimmy O'Brien was a priest for the best part of a decade before deciding he had to leave his vocation. He has now been married for 20 years to a woman he met while still a priest, and he has two children.
[Pic in URL] Entering a life of celibacy - ordination of new priests at St Peter's Basilica, Vatican
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Gee,
Perhaps the author should ask Keith Olberman.
So far, yours is the only comment ...
Better to be occupied than pre-occupied;)
One of the comments:
“...The rules on pre-marital sex are the same for men and women in Islam.
Mamoon Razaq, Keighley, England...”
If this is true, why do you not hear of the men being flogged, stoned to death, or beheaded???
He means the article on the link...
I think it is safe to say the women of the Obama administration are sexless. (eg Napolitano, WH ecconomic advisor, all of the WH MSNBC...)
Perhaps that is why the left is so cranky...
Get married and find out.
The Church does not have a problem with priests molesting young girls.
The Church has a problem with gay priests who engage in pedophilia.
***Very interesting comments follow the article.***
I’ll start:
From the article: “In interpretations of the Scriptures, celibacy was more perfect and desirable in God’s eyes “
Ohhhh really!?!
Song of Solomon 4:
3 Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon;
your mouth is lovely.
Your temples behind your veil
are like the halves of a pomegranate.
4 Your neck is like the tower of David,
built with elegance;
on it hang a thousand shields,
all of them shields of warriors.
5 Your two breasts are like two fawns,
like twin fawns of a gazelle
that browse among the lilies.
6 Until the day breaks
and the shadows flee,
I will go to the mountain of myrrh
and to the hill of incense.
7 All beautiful you are, my darling;
there is no flaw in you.
8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,
come with me from Lebanon.
Descend from the crest of Amana,
from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon,
from the lions’ dens
and the mountain haunts of the leopards.
9 You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride;
you have stolen my heart
with one glance of your eyes,
with one jewel of your necklace.
10 How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much more pleasing is your love than wine,
and the fragrance of your perfume than any spice!
11 Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride;
milk and honey are under your tongue.
The fragrance of your garments is like that of Lebanon.
12 You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride;
you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain.
13 Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates
with choice fruits,
with henna and nard,
14 nard and saffron,
calamus and cinnamon,
with every kind of incense tree,
with myrrh and aloes
and all the finest spices.
15 You are a garden fountain,
a well of flowing water
streaming down from Lebanon.
Beloved
16 Awake, north wind,
and come, south wind!
Blow on my garden,
that its fragrance may spread abroad.
Let my lover come into his garden
and taste its choice fruits.
From The Sunday Times
April 18, 2010
Errant priests’ secret children to sue church
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7100920.ece
John Follain in Rome and Bojan Pancevski in Vienna
EXCERPT:
When Pat Bond told her lover Henry Willenborg, a Franciscan priest, that she was pregnant, he urged her to have an abortion.
Bond, who was 28, had a miscarriage and then became pregnant again. This time Willenborg’s superiors urged her to give up the child for adoption.
Bond, from Missouri, kept the child but agreed to a vow of silence. In a signed contract with the Catholic Church, she undertook to keep the priest’s identity secret in exchange for financial support for her son, Nathan.
In America, Britain, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy and Austria,women made pregnant by priests have signed such pledges in exchange for hush money from the church.
Pope Benedict XVI refused to comment on the scandals on his flight to Malta for a weekend visit yesterday, saying only that the church had been “wounded by our sins”. But he faces a new battle over the children of priests. Many former lovers and their offspring are preparing to mount lawsuits.
Bond was 25 when she started a five-year relationship with Willenborg in 1983, after going to him for marriage counselling. He kissed her passionately as she left his parlour, then she left her husband.
After Bond became pregnant by him for the second time in 1986, Willenborg’s order, the Order of Friars Minor, offered her $50,000 and a confidentiality contract. “They said: ‘Here, take this money, sign this contract and you’ll have support for your child’. I was very naive and I signed,” said Bond.
It’s no big deal. I just don’t plan on having sex without the L-word attached.
*spit takes*
DAMMIT, you had to wait until I took a drink!!! Now you owe me a new keyboard!
:-)
Ask an engineering student.
Lazamataz?
An allegory describing love for God.
Sheesh.
You mean, get married, have kids and THEN find out.
You’re bad.
Dude, they don't have sex with men.
ROTFLMAO! There’s the post of the day.
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