RELIGION: Catholic Priestly Celibacy just Silly!

I can’t help write about Catholic issues because they are in the paper every day; it’s just not me picking on them.

This time it was a radio interview which included the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Edward M. Eagan (76) who will be retiring soon and who is considered a conservative.

The topic was priestly celibacy and he was heard to say that the issue is a “perfectly legitimate discussion”. He said that sooner or later, the Catholic Church will have to consider whether to allow priests to marry.

We know that Pope Benedict is taking the Church backwards as fast as he can so we know where he stands on priestly celibacy but for a conservative, senior prince of the Church to allow the issue of celibacy to be even raised in discussion is big, really big.

I have written about this issue many times, debunking each argument proffered by the Church in defense of celibacy and I have concluded time and time again that the Church does not have a legitimate leg to stand on except that it wants it that way.

The good Cardinal stated that there are no “dogmatic” issues here. He also mentioned other “Catholic” faiths (Ukrainian Orthodox) that have always allowed their priests to marry without suffering any obvious “practical” difficulties like not having enough time to tend the flock.

Historically, and this is what really matters, priestly celibacy did not come into vogue until the 11th century when too many priestly offspring were demanding a potion of Church property as part of their inheritance. A simple solution was just to ban priestly marriage and therefore legitimate offspring.

Celibacy is not Church dogma; it is a habit or a tradition and can be changed immediately by the Vatican.

The shortage of priests is quite visible and will only get worst. The shortage of non-perverted priests is obvious and getting worst; celibacy was what drew the perverts to the Church in the first place – too long to explain.

Make priests into human beings and you will get a bunch of them signing up. Don’t want to pay for their families; other religions manage, sell some masterpieces!