The failure of mandatory celibacy

by Fr. Neil Parado

The shining examples of the utter failure of mandatory celibacy, which Jesus never intended ( Mt. 19:11-12) and the New Testament never envisioned ( I Cor. 7:7; 9:5; I Tim. 4:1-4 ), are Pope Alexander VI who had a few mistresses and several children; Cardinal Hans Groer, former Archbishop of Vienna; Archbishop Juliusz Paetz of Poznan, Poland; Bishops Symons and O'Connell, former bishops of Palm Beach, Fl; and so on and on.

As Rev. Dr. Heinz Vogels contends, in his book Celibacy: Gift or Law ? :

"The ability to live as a celibate is not given to all, as Jesus says in Mt. 19:11-12. Therefore, celibacy is not good for all, because for those priests who have not received the gift of celibacy but who, nevertheless, face the demand of the law that they refrain from marriage, celibacy becomes a suppression of their God-given disposition to be completed by a partner, which often results in neurosis. And worse still, such suppression may even lead to aberrations such as promiscuity, rape, and pedophilia."

Robert Pledl, a Catholic attorney representing the St. Lawrence Seminary victims in Mount Calvary, Wisconsin, believes that "mandatory celibacy creates a clerical world where women and children are the enemy. The accumulating scandals signal the need for reform " ( Time, June 7 /02 ).