Benedict Called for Church to "Investigate Celibacy"

"Funny how the more traditionally-minded orders and dioceses are tending to grow somewhat, -"

So are other conservative religious denominations.  There are many people who want, nay - need, to be told the who, what, when, where and how of their beliefs.   The struggle of the journey scares the bejeepers out of them.

The discipline of priestly celibracy will, no doubt,be modified at some point becuase we are a sacramental church, and to not address this critical shortage of priests would be obstinacy of the worst order. The Holy Spirit is with us and change will come.

When I saw the headline, I thought the Pope called for Church to investigate celibacy.

When I read further, it turns out that it was not the Pope, but rather then Fr. Ratzinger.

Pope Benedict, on the other hand, has addressed this issue as Vicar of Christ.

See: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-rethinks-clarifies-and-reinforces-celibacy-asserts-vatican-analyst/


In a world where the “now” of the present and tangible seems good enough, “celibacy is a great scandal, because it shows precisely that God is considered and lived as a reality,” Pope Benedict told the gathered priests. “With the eschatological life of celibacy, the future world of God enters into the realities of our time,” even though the material world would have any hint of the transcendent vanish.The Pope contrasted celibacy with the modern notion of not getting married. The two are not at all alike, he said, and that is because celibacy represents a lifestyle of commitment, as does marriage. “Not getting married is based on the desire to live only for oneself, not to accept any definitive bond, to have life at every moment in full autonomy, to decide at every moment what to do, what to take from life; and therefore a ‘no’ to commitment, a ‘no’ to definitiveness, a having life only for oneself,” he explained.Celibacy, on the other hand, “is a definitive ‘yes,’ it is allowing ourselves to be taken in hand by God, giving ourselves into the hands of the Lord, into his ‘I,’ and therefore it is an act of fidelity and trust,” said the Holy Father. “It is the exact opposite of this ‘no,’ of this autonomy that does not want to be obligated, that does not want to enter into a bond.”  And, “as the criticisms show,” concluded Benedict XVI, “celibacy is a great sign of faith, of the presence of God in the world.” He prayed that the Lord free priests from the secondary scandals such as their sins and imperfections so that they may continue to live the “scandal” of celibacy. Thus, by demonstrating their faith and trust in God, they may bring people to God.

Truely, this is a man of God who knows what he is talking about when he talks about the celibate life, even from his early thinking on the topic as Fr. Ratzinger where the Church need to study the topic in order to reaffirm it.

If mandatory celibacy was lifted 41 years ago would not the wives and family of the married priests have so modified the clerical culture  that the episcopal cover-up of abuse would not, could not have happened? Who is to blame  that this toxic clerical culture was hard wired in place..  due to his  'go along get along' career, Benedict xxvi needs to get this MANDATORY celibacy ended during his watch . delaying it to the next guy is cowardice. Cowardice is harsh, but these times scream for harsh words.

Benedict XVI's portrayal of celibacy, (cited in comment No. 2 by Pete Lake) as an affirmation and a sign of faith go to the heart of the matter. In 2 millennia of Church history renewal has never come from relaxing standards. It has always involved higher standads and greater sacrifice.

Why is married life "lowering standards"? 

"If mandatory celibacy was lifted 41 years ago would not the wives and family of the married priests have so modified the clerical culture  that the episcopal cover-up of abuse would not, could not have happened?"

Right, because we see how married clergy in Protestant denominations has kept them from ever having any sexual abuse issues...

Apart from the benefit to the church of having a married clergy, there is a very serious benefit to the moral life of the clergy: integrity.
My life experience leads me to conclude that celibacy is a promise made far more often than kept.  A community founded on the Gospel must prize integrity in its leadership. 

MarkH... the $2.5 billion USA payout  and the walk away of  millions of Catholics  makes your 'everybody does it' sound real lame. Maybe we Catholics need to get a slogan something like the campaign bite..  "It's MANDATORY celibacy stupid'  ..... willfully celibacy is a virtue .. when 13 year olds in junior seminaries were forced into life time promises.. where is the willful embrace of virtue? In England the Church is ordaining married bishops and priests. What say you and other Trads about that?  Are 17,000 married deacons in the USA chopped liver? As a life long Catholic, I used to take pride in It's  consistency.. there is no consistency in what I see now .. it's all looks like 'play it by ear' and the dopey laity won't see behind the screen.

Celibacy should be a choice rather than a requirement.  Celebacy or marriage is a calling and either choice should be open for the priesthood.

''Not getting married is based on the desire to live only for oneself''??   Is that a joke?  I realize that Joseph Ratinzger probably never dated or dealt with the difficulty of finding the right person, but that is still an astonishing indictment of the millions of single people in the world who live for many other people besides themselves.   A terrible statement.  

John, do you think that Mr. Lake is insinuating that Joseph Ratingzer was speaking ex cathedra? This, of course, couldn't be since he wasn't Pope yet. I am afraid that this is not a joke, just another example of the absurdity of judgemental conclusions based on some perverse ideas on sexuality.

I have to read the whole statement to see where it came from and the full context. But that is such a terrible thing to say, and I'm surprised that Ratzinger, who is undeniably intelligent, would resort to such a crude and hurtful characterization. There are a hundred reasons why people don't marry, including bad luck, an inability to find someone, financial resources, a vocation to the single life, etc.  And there are a hundred bad reasons why people get married and/or join the clergy.  

Our diocesan pastor also seem to relegate single people to non-entity status, however, so maybe this is some kind of clerical bias, i.e., single people don't matter or are "selfish."  He only refers to "parish families" when he speaks, even though when I look around in church there are invariably 15 people sitting by themselves.  

Sorry to take this off topic but that Mr. Lake's cite to that statement really threw me.

 "In 2 millennia of Church history renewal has never come from relaxing standards. It has always involved higher standads and greater sacrifice."

In light of the new Ordinariate as well as centuries of history with a married priesthood in the non-Latin Rites of the CATHOLIC Church, how do you justify that self-serving statement?

The laugh of the week:

“Not getting married is based on the desire to live only for oneself, not to accept any definitive bond, to have life at every moment in full autonomy, to decide at every moment what to do, what to take from life; and therefore a ‘no’ to commitment, a ‘no’ to definitiveness, a having life only for oneself,” he explained.Celibacy, on the other hand, “is a definitive ‘yes,’ it is allowing ourselves to be taken in hand by God, giving ourselves into the hands of the Lord, into his ‘I,’ and therefore it is an act of fidelity and trust,” said the Holy Father. “It is the exact opposite of this ‘no,’ of this autonomy that does not want to be obligated, that does not want to enter into a bond.” 

Self-serving claptrap.

Some of you really don't like the Church's discipline too much, do you?
Funny how the more traditionally-minded orders and dioceses are tending to grow somewhat, while the not-quite-rebellious are noticeably not-quite-falling-apart....

It seems that something might have gotten garbled in translation here, and copy/pasting of a garbled version extends the garbling.
Contrast the quotation passage in this coverage:
http://ct.dio.org/comment-and-dialogue/item/1610-off-the-cuff-tracking-the-pope%E2%80%99s-words-on-celibacy.html
‘He then turned to marriage and developed another rather surprising thesis: that celibacy has more in common with marriage than with the single lifestyle — which, he said, is increasingly fashionable today.
“But this not getting married is something totally and fundamentally different from celibacy, because not getting married is based on the desire to live only for oneself, to reject any definitive bond,” he said.’
If this is a more accurate depiction of what was said (that’s an open question), then the Pope is NOT talking generally of singlehood but of a fashionable rejection of marriage by those who could get married but avoid it because they want to avoid the ties that bind in marriage. (Chaucer, btw, depicted a very sophisticated variation on this theme in the Franklin’s Tale, where the couple pledge that their marriage will not entail making undue demands on each other – a rationalized, etoliated echo of mutual self-sacrifice, not the real thing. That Chaucer’s psychological insight was amazing….)
I would like to think this is what the Pope intended. Because the other approach is, simply, a calumny. And stupidly so.

I wonder whether, when the pope talks about ''not getting married'' he is referring to people living with their girlfriends or boyfriends, but refrain from getting married because they don't want that commitment.

I've translated the 1970 letter into English at: www.pathsoflove.com/blog/ratzinger-rahner-et-al-on-celibacy-1970/