Thanks for your post.
Although he's viewed as a troll around here, Richard McBrien made the point this morning that mandatory celibacy IS related to the present crisis, if only because it draws certain kinds of personalities to the priesthood.
If a requirement for serving in Congress was mandatory celibacy for males, we would have an entirely different makeup in that body than we do today. And there would be more gays in Congress as well.
Those, like me, who argue for admitting married men to the priesthood recognize that the pool of candidates would be much larger, and seminary authorities could be much more selective in who they admit.
I find it rather odd that the American Catholic Church has a priesthood overrun with sexually active gays, when it could have had a priesthood overrun with sexually active married men if optional celibacy had been considered at Vatican II.
I find it rather odd that the American Catholic Church has a priesthood overrun with sexually active gays, when it could have had a priesthood overrun with sexually active married men if optional celibacy had been considered at Vatican II.Thanks for your post, sinkspur. JPII was on the commission at Vatican II that wrote the Dogument Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, and he has recently reiterated his personal opposition to a further relaxation of mandatory celibacy. IOW, I don't look for a further relaxation of mandatory celibacy to happen in this pontificate, if ever.
I concur with those who say that a married Catholic diocesan priesthood is not a panacea for the present problem, but then again, I haven't heard such a naive claim from any source I would informed and orthodox. IMO, there is room for both married and celibate diocesan priests in the Church.
More important, although I concur with those who deny a causal relationship between the infiltration of active homosexuals and pedophiles among the clergy and an exclusively celibate priesthood, I concur with you that the latter provided the proper conditions for that infiltration to flourish, and that a further relaxation of mandatory celibacy should at least be considered as part of any effort to rid our clergy of these deviants.
As an ex-Episcopalian I don't look at married clergy or anything as a cure-all for what ails the Church. But I do think the largest part of the answer lies in the universal call to holiness, a call which is as much for the celibate monk or nun as it is for the married couple.