Optional Celibacy - dedicated to more than 30 colleagues who have left the priesthood
Girzone
Cozzens, Donald: The
Changing Face of the Priesthood
Freeing
Celibacy
Robinson, Geoff: Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church
2012-10-10: An elephant in the room: homosexuality in priesthood and religious life
2011-09-19 Compulsory celibacy strangling church
2011-09-13 Bishop of Derry calls for end to compulsory celibacy
2010-11-04 Pope Benedict gets the celibacy question backward
2010-10-04 "The problem is not celibacy, but the way celibacy is lived" ??
2010-07-25 ABC
radio program: Donald Cozzens - priesthood & other issues
(click "Download MP3")
- 3 people, two of them sure like big words, Fr Cozzens easy to
understand and program worth listening to for his important sharing.
A lesson in how not to conduct an interview ....so many
interruptions......please let us hear more of Fr Cozzens' wisdom!
2010-07-22 Sex crisis in priesthood
2010-06-09 Mandatory celibacy at the heart of what's wrong
2010-06 Should celibacy be optional, not compulsory, for priests? BBC - includes interview with Bishop Geoff Robinson of Australia
2010-05-19 USA father of six to be ordained a priest - "a special exception"
2010-05
Catholic Church needs total reform (Bishop Pat Power)
- while people like Bishop Pat are calling for the church to be more humble,
more simple, avoiding the trappings of power etc., last week in Washington D.C.
a U.S. cardinal said a Tridentine Mass with all the trappings, including a 20
yard (!) "superman" cape - see especially the second picture in
this report
- this
BBC report on Toyota has many similarities to present church situation:
problems, unwillingness to change etc
- open letter
from Hans Kung to Catholic bishops
2010-04
The
future?
- Reflections
of Fr W. Steckling, OMI leader
- Is
middle ground possible? (John Allen)
- Bishops:
"sorry"; Vatican: "idle gossip"
- 50,000
protestants at Vatican October 31?
- a
Year of Shame? (by a former priest)
- Pope
should resign?
2010-05-13 Austrian bishop questions celibacy
2010-04-28 Secret sex in the celibate system
2010-04-17 Pornography makes it hard to stay celibate, bishop says
comment on above from Cath
News:
Yes Bishop, celibacy is
difficult. Seeing people enjoying sex on TV or the internet is going to get you
aroused; but also seeing couples eating at a restaurant, or walking along a
beach at sunset, or watching a family enjoy a picnic, might make you feel
lonely.
When you have finished your mass on Saturday night and you are sitting alone in
front of you television or computer, what are you going to watch, how are you
going to relax?
Once you have done your church work, how do you relax and recoup your energy to
start again?
What is missing in the celibacy requirement, is recognition of the legitimate
needs of the human being who has taken on the mission to serve the catholic
church.
We can be attracted to an ideal, but we have to live with reality. To think the
reality of human sexuality can be turned off for a good cause is heroic but
foolish.
Celibacy might be emblematic of priestly commitment and a display of the power
of Rome to control the people who would answer the call to serve the Church but
it has little to do with human reality. That is why it is difficult.
Compulsory celibacy is not Christ centered, not Christian, not life centered,
it's not loving, it does not help people to grow, it's just an imposition. If it
was chosen, if it was optional, it might be all the above, but its not. And Rome
has to answer for that.
Posted By: Martin Nicol
2010-03
Keeping
the record straight on Benedict and the crisis - John Allen
Kung's
full statement re compulsory celibacy
2009-12
Another
commentary on Vatican's outreach to Anglicans