Celibacy

BEING a Roman Catholic priest is increasingly uncomfortable. As a group, our image suffers as we endure what seem to be weekly disclosures that yet more clerics have engaged in sexual activity ranging from standard lust to outright perversion.Though the Vatican and the American church hierarchy have launched understandable (if desperate) efforts at damage control, most of the priests I know have begun questioning their habitual trust of their peers.And the laity cannot help but cast suspicious glances on practices -- especially social activities with children or female parishioners -- that went unquestioned for years.

I and many other active Catholics, and apparently including many in the clergy, are becoming more and more disgusted with our bishops. If marriage is only between a man and a woman according to natural law, and it is the most perfect way to live in family as human beings, as they proclaim, why have they wasted so many millions on interfering with state law and not working on a real problem in their own backyard. Why don't they have the courage to stand up and campaign against the "mandatory celibacy law" of our own priests - surely this is against the natural law, and it certainly didn't come from Jesus.

BOSTON -- Ever since the scandal broke over Boston, I've had a refrain running through my head: "What's celibacy got to do with it?" After all, as the wind of sexual abuse shakes more priests out of the trees, it has become routine to wonder: What's behind all this? The word celibacy comes up in one story after another. Churchgoers and church-watchers repeatedly say, "We need to talk about permitting married priests." At least one cardinal summoned to Rome, Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, said he would bring up the subject.

Cardinal Edwin F. O'Brienapplies the Bible in a convenient - to him - but logically inconsistent way ("Redefining marriage in Md.?" March 2). He cites the book of Genesis, which says that God created males and females, blessed them and told them to multiply. Fair enough, and many of us have enjoyed accepting that mission. But the Bible does not say that everyone must accept that mission - as surely the cardinal knows, since he and his fellow Roman Catholic priests have rejected it, choosing celibacy instead.

LIKELY TO BECOME a classic, sure to be controversial and sensationalized, Richard Sipe's recently published study of celibacy (''A Secret World: Sexuality and the Search for Celibacy'') is a pioneering, landmark study of the vow of celibacy as actually lived by a group of Roman Catholic priests.The U.S. sample was analyzed during the quarter-century between 1960 and 1985 -- coincidentally, the era of a supposed )) sex revolution, and a time of radical clerical questioning of church authority on sexual matters.

BOSTON -- Voice of the Faithful, the lay group formed in response to the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, is calling for the Vatican to review the requirement that priests be celibate, saying the policy may have played a role in the scandal. The position represents a shift in the approach of the organization, which has avoided raising such issues. It comes as Voice of the Faithful faces a budget deficit from a drop-off in large donations and finds itself at a crossroads in direction.

In the framed photograph displayed in A. W. Richard Sipe's dining room, Pope John Paul II shakes hands with Mr. Sipe and leans toward him to speak."I tell people he's saying, 'Keep up the good work,' " Mr. Sipe says, laughing.This is not likely. Not since 1990, when the ex-priest from Lutherville published his book on celibacy and the sexual activity of Catholic clergymen in the United States. Not since he started saying the church faces an "epic crisis" due to child abuse by priests, challenging the power structure of the church and the tradition of celibacy as the roots of the problem.

LOS ANGELES -- The Swiss may be sold on celibacy, but Bora's Boys, it appears, will be allowed to be boys when the World Cup comes to America this summer.U.S. national team coach Bora Milutinovic says he has no plans to follow Switzerland coach Roy Hodgson's lead and forbid his players to have sex during the month-long soccer championships.That was welcome news for the American players."Perfect," says midfielder Brian Quinn, a 33-year-old father of six."Sex is a big part of everybody's life, including the U.S. national team's," defender Alexi Lalas said.

AND NOW, having read the sordid details from the police report, we regard the pathetic pastor of St. Clement I Catholic Church, caught in a lie of fear and desperation, his license to practice suspended, his whereabouts for a week known but to his attorney and, one assumes, God. All because he did that which his vows forbid him to do, and allegedly lied to a Baltimore County police officer to cover it up. Another one bites the dust, and while the development...

The Rev. Robert J. Fagan was a popular, successful and committed priest, recently assigned to a high-profile position as an associate pastor at the Roman Catholic cathedral in Washington when he began to confront an uneasiness gnawing inside of him. "When I was ordained a priest, I was very committed to being a right-down-the-line, straight-arrow celibate," he said. "But I acutely felt the loneliness of rectory life." Fagan prayed, consulted fellow priests, spent time in a monastery and finally left the celibate priesthood in 1987.

Assuming that the number of Catholic priests in the Baltimore archdiocese continues to decline, and that Mel Gibson Catholicism prevails to preserve celibacy and keep women from ordination, then, by all means, leaders of the senior see of the United States should go after the disgruntled Anglicans. Rather than taking Catholic priests from Latin America, Africa and Asia to serve here, Anglo recruitment could be the church's best hope for picking up a few new clergy whose primary language is English.

Can we put to rest the idea that it's the celibacy of priests that causes the sexual abuse of young people? I don't particularly care about defending priests, but if that's at the bottom of the abuse then there shouldn't be any victims among those living in homes of married folk. As a contact person for a group dealing with sexual abuse issues, I can say there's no common denominator. Sexual abuse was experienced from fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and in so-called "Christian" homes.

BOSTON -- Voice of the Faithful, the lay group formed in response to the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, is calling for the Vatican to review the requirement that priests be celibate, saying the policy may have played a role in the scandal. The position represents a shift in the approach of the organization, which has avoided raising such issues. It comes as Voice of the Faithful faces a budget deficit from a drop-off in large donations and finds itself at a crossroads in direction.

Catholic bishops reaffirm stance on celibacy of priests VATICAN CITY -- The first Synod of Bishops under Pope Benedict XVI ended yesterday with an embrace of tradition, acknowledging the severity of the shortage of priests in the Roman Catholic Church but rejecting solutions such as allowing married priests. "There has been a massive restatement of the importance of the tradition in the Latin Church of mandatory celibacy," Cardinal George Pell, archbishop of Sydney, Australia, told a news conference.

BOSTON -- Ever since the scandal broke over Boston, I've had a refrain running through my head: "What's celibacy got to do with it?" After all, as the wind of sexual abuse shakes more priests out of the trees, it has become routine to wonder: What's behind all this? The word celibacy comes up in one story after another. Churchgoers and church-watchers repeatedly say, "We need to talk about permitting married priests." At least one cardinal summoned to Rome, Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, said he would bring up the subject.

ROME - Pope John Paul II explicitly addressed sex scandals involving priests yesterday, ordering bishops to "diligently investigate accusations" against those who break their vows of celibacy and chiding any who might see the priesthood as an easy life. In his most direct and extensive remarks since the scandal started convulsing the American church, the pope made clear that mandatory celibacy is not open to discussion, either during the planned Vatican meetings with American cardinals, or at any other time.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- A prominent Roman Catholic bishop has been ordered to the Vatican next month to explain his insistence that the church in Ireland should have an open debate on the requirement of celibacy for priests.The dispute has set off widespread contention in Ireland, where 95 percent of the country's 3.5 million people are members of the church. It has been front-page news since early June as the bishop, the Most Rev. Brendan Comiskey, and the primate of Ireland, Cardinal Cahal Daly, have exchanged volleys in newspaper articles and interviews.

Opening the door on a topic the Vatican has said is closed for discussion, the Archdiocese of Boston's newspaper published an editorial yesterday raising questions about the Roman Catholic Church policy requiring celibacy of its priests. The editorial appeared in The Pilot, the nation's oldest Catholic newspaper, in a special edition dealing with the clergy sexual abuse scandal that has racked the Boston church and led to a wave of revelations across the country of past cases of priests molesting minors.

Rethink rules for ordaining Catholic clergy As a layperson who has worked professionally within the Catholic Church for 25 years, I greatly appreciate Maureen Dowd's balanced column "Church must fight abuse at its roots" (Opinion * Commentary, April 1). Like Ms. Dowd, I have been disturbed both by recent scandals and by some reactions to them. Child abusers must be dealt with openly and compassionately and removed from potential contact with minors. At the same time, we should not forget the great majority of priests who are faithful to their commitment to celibacy, even though it may entail significant sacrifice.

AND NOW, having read the sordid details from the police report, we regard the pathetic pastor of St. Clement I Catholic Church, caught in a lie of fear and desperation, his license to practice suspended, his whereabouts for a week known but to his attorney and, one assumes, God. All because he did that which his vows forbid him to do, and allegedly lied to a Baltimore County police officer to cover it up. Another one bites the dust, and while the development...