A rchive Date
[ 23-02-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[Church forced to wrestle with dilemma
By DOUG BEAZLEY - Staff Writer
June 28, 2000
What exactly does a priest without a pulpit do to fill the days? He reads, talks to old friends, remembers. Plays golf.
"I play a lot of golf," said Father Leo Floyd, laughing. His time has been pretty much his own ever since a romantic involvement with an unnamed woman forced him to quit his post at St. Theresa's in Mill Woods two years ago.
Floyd, who fought for the rights of Edmonton Institution prisoners and to save the Grey Nuns Hospital during his years as a priest, has long since returned to his old vow of celibacy. Sometimes, he pines for the old days with the responsibility for a congregation of souls.
"I do miss it, yes," he said. "I miss the people. St. Francis was a very good congregation. It was good to be of service. I suppose you could ask anyone if they had regrets. And I suppose I wish things turned out different."
Like a lot of out-of-work priests, Floyd got caught in the wringer between 1,600 years of Roman Catholic teaching and his own humanity. And like many of his former colleagues, he thinks it's time the church dropped the celibacy requirement from the priesthood.
"The priesthood is still a good and honest way of life," he said. "And celibacy has a lot of things going for it. But the world is changing."
Changing too fast, according to some Catholics. While a lot of priests of Floyd's generation feel the time has come for the church to put away the celibacy rule, others see it as a step in the church's mutation from keeper of the Christian flame to feel-good chapel of New Age spiritual therapy.
"It's all part of the dumbing-down of the faith," said John Muggeridge, a retired college professor and Catholic thinker. "Priests are turning into social workers."
For the record, Catholic priests haven't always been single. For about the first 400 years of the church's existence it had no rules on married priests. Some of the apostles had wives - although many think they abandoned them when they started following Christ.
Many early church members believed sex was sinful for any Christian, priest or layperson. Saint Siricius, pope from 384 to 399 AD, wrote the first papal directive requiring that his priests remain chaste in 386 AD.
"Before then, celibacy had only been customary in monasteries," said Brother Donatus, a Church historian at the Newman Theological College in north Edmonton.
"Not everyone paid attention to the directive. There was a bishop in France as late as 560 AD who had a wife." Celibacy became part of church discipline in the 1600s.
Priests like Father Mike McCaffery, the outgoing chancellor of the Edmonton archdiocese, believe the celibacy rule should be relaxed to help the church recruit the young seminarians. "Celibacy just isn't as attractive to young people as marriage," he said.
And given the church's ugly recent history of child-molestation cases, some argue allowing in married clergy could help prevent future abuse.
"There is evidence suggesting the atmosphere of celibacy may make it harder for the individual to distinguish between normal and deviant sexuality," said Richard Sobsey, a U of A professor of educational psychology. "Many people with atypical sexual orientations may join the priesthood thinking it'll keep them out of trouble."
But traditionalists like Muggeridge and Father Sylvain Casavant argue the pedophilia argument is a red herring - priests are no more likely than parents to molest children.
And they say dropping the celibacy rule would rob the priesthood of spiritual authority and power - the things that separate it from an ordinary job.
"Celibacy lived as it should be lived is a witness to God," said Father Casavant, who works as a sort of archdiocese recruiter urging young people to join a seminary. "The problem isn't celibacy, it's a willingness to sacrifice. We're talking about a personal relationship with God."
"Making the church like the rest of the world doesn't work," said Muggeridge. "People want the church to give them a sense of otherness, of a higher reality.
"You can't do that with a priest who's thoughts are divided between God and getting his kids into a good college."
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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