During the spring of 2002, the church was confronted with the spectacle of some clergy who had sadly failed in their commitments in chastity by engaging in immoral relations with minors. Throughout the furor this scandal unleashed, the priesthood itself came under close scrutiny by the media, which insisted that celibacy was the cause of the problem. Celibacy has been required of diocesan priests in the Latin Rite since the Second Lateran Council in 1139. But it was not always a universal requirement in the Roman Catholic church, as we know. Even some of the popes were married. For instance,...
