Celibacy : is it really necessary?

Abstract

Is celibacy really necessary? Is celibacy inherent to the priestly office or not? Will the Church ever abolish this discipline that has been with us for a thousand years? Such questions and more have been asked, are being asked, and will still be asked. Celibacy is not a dogmatic declaration that requires faith although its supporters claim to have theological foundations. It is simply a choice one has to make when he feels that the Lord is beckoning him to become one of His ministers. The Church for particular reasons arbitrarily established this choice. Nowadays many are asking if celibacy is really so important to the priesthood when it has transpired that there are so many priests who are homosexuals. In a letter to the Tablet Fr. E. J. Butler wrote: "My concern, (shared with, apparently, an ever-diminishing number of non-gay brethren) is for the future of compulsory celibacy. If clerical heterosexuality is in steep decline, then the law as we know it seems doomed to founder on the rocks of its own irrelevance." 1 The question of repealing the law of celibacy has, therefore, gained a new perspective. However, when we speak of celibacy we do mean that heterosexuality is the sociological, theological, structural, financial, and other problems that will take some time to conform to the make-up of the Church. This work gives the many historical, theological, psychological, and social dimensions of celibacy. No one can remain neutral to such a controversial topic even if he wants to. Looking at the pros and cons one tends to give weight more to one side than to the other. This comes automatically; forming a bias for or prejudice against is innate to the problem. Therefore, I give no apology for giving my preference to one and not to the other.