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Celibacy - The Fact and the Fiction |
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Written by Raymond Arroyo
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Wednesday, 04 April 2007 |
For National Review Online
NRO Online
When
he met with the U.S. cardinals to formulate some response to the sexual
scandals besieging the Church, the Pope, in his wisdom took the issue
of clerical celibacy off the table as a cure-all. Against the strident
voices of dissenters, disaffected clergy, and at least one American
cardinal, His Holiness suggested that celibacy was part of the
solution, not the problem. And the facts seem to bear him out.
In
1992 the Archdiocese of Chicago reviewed some 2,252 priest personnel
files. They found that 40 priests � 1.8 percent had been guilty of
sexual misconduct at some point in their career. Of that 40, only one
was a pedophile. Another study by Penn State Professor Philip Jenkins
reveals that a mere .3 percent of priests are pedophiles. Married men
abuse children in far greater numbers. Anywhere from 3 to 8 percent if
you believe the studies.
So statistically, children are far
safer with the celibates. As the U.S. cardinals said in their report of
April 24: "a link between celibacy and pedophilia cannot be
scientifically maintained."
"But if only these men had a spouse,
a sexual outlet, they would not need to turn to kids" goes the
conventional wisdom (and the screeds regularly littering the op-ed
pages). Aside from reducing women to little more than child-protection
devices, there are logical holes here.
Putting aside the media
fixation with the Catholic Church it is important to point out, as the
Christian Science Monitor recently did, that the majority of
sexual-abuse allegations in America occur in Protestant churches. There
are 3,500 sex-abuse allegations a year - roughly 70 a week in
Protestant churches according to the Christian Ministry Resource
Survey. Remember, these are churches where married clergy and
volunteers predominate.
If the objective is to stop the abuse
before us, and prohibit its happening again- the Protestant statistics
prove marriage is no insurance policy. Since the victims in 98 percent
of the alleged Catholic abuse cases were teenage boys, allowing priests
to marry (women) seems a pointless solution. There is just no
correlation between the offense and the corrective. It's a little like
offering the alcoholic priest the deed to a dairy and calling him
cured.
If the truth be known: These scandals were not caused
by celibacy. These scandals were caused by a lack of celibacy. The
ancient discipline has gotten a bad rap in the chaos of the last few
months. But it is so much a part of the Church's history and its
goodness, to cast it away in this dark hour would be an error.
If
you believe the folks on TV, celibacy was something "imposed on the
priesthood" during the Middle Ages to keep the children of clerics from
inheriting Church property. If I had a dime for every time I've heard
this.� Actually, the real history is far more interesting, and complex.
To begin with, Christ himself was a celibate so it is no
surprise that the early Church and the Scripture itself salutes and
commends the practice. In Matthew's Gospel, Christ lauds those who
"make themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven." In his
first letter to the Corinthians St. Paul, another celibate, writes:
"the unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord....but the
married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife,
and his interests are divided."
From the time of Christ
forward celibacy was the Catholic norm for priests - married clergy
were merely tolerated. Certainly by the 4th century there is little
doubt where the Church stood on the matter. In 385, Pope Siricius
issued the first papal decree on priestly celibacy. Five years later,
the Council of Carthage announced: "Previous councils have decreed that
bishops, priests, and deacons must be continent and perfectly chaste,
as becomes ministers of God...as the Apostles taught." By the Council
of Toledo in 633, a bishop's permission was needed for a priest to
marry. Finally in 1139, Pope Gregory VII declared celibacy mandatory
for all priests; formalizing in law what was already the general
practice for centuries.
And the canard that protecting Church
land rights drove the papacy to the discipline of celibacy just isn't
true. But there is a spiritual explanation. Starting in the third
century married priests were required to abstain from sex the night
before offering Mass. The notion being: Separate yourselves from the
worldly and focus on the transcendent. As the demand for the sacraments
increased, these men were abstaining from sex all the time. Thus, like
all things in the Church, a practice rooted in tradition evolved over
time and eventually was codified into law.
At a time when the
world is so transfixed by the deviant, where all mysteries are laid
bare, these celibate men and women are a contradiction: a people set
apart, people who have saved the most precious part of themselves for
God alone. The world needs that example and purity today more than ever.
In
the final analysis we are right to condemn, and bring to justice those
non-celibate clergymen guilty of these heinous crimes, but let us not
strike out against those who faithfully observe their vows to God and
continue to walk steadily down this holy and well-trodden path of
sacrifice.
Raymond Arroyo is news director and host of The
World Over on EWTN, the world's largest religious network. He writes
from New Orleans.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 04 April 2007 )
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