Tag Archives: celibacy

Why celibacy, for Heaven’s sake ?

26 Wednesday Aug 2020

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Any mortuary attendant will tell you that his workplace is not a quiet one. Nor, of course, an entirely dead one, very much not so at the microbiological level. Eructations of stomach gas and the creakings of shifting muscle groups have an eerie music of their own. The attendant learns this after his first night on duty., of course. These phenomena also occur at awakes, but only the most besotted relative would attempt to interpret them as signs of premature death certification.

Nevertheless, Pope Francis shows no signs of admitting that the Roman Rite is defunct, seizing on any sign of activity, however irrelevant, as a chance that it may still be alive. This is particularly wearing for all of us, since it was obvious in January 2020 that he had put a pillow over its mouth by very publicly continuing to restrict the provision of the Eucharist to celibates.

Once again I remind you that there are two meanings for the word ‘rite’. Christmas turkey is a rite, birthday cakes are a rite, even Orange Walks are a rite. But here I am talking about Rites, A Rite is one of the 24 sections of the Catholic Church, the Roman one being by far the biggest.

The Roman Rite, therefore, has bee3n the most widespread means of providing the Eucharist , through history and geography. Until now, of course. Locally, about 80 % don’t attend Mass, and therefore don’t receive the Eucharist. Since this is what the Church is for, it’s all very odd, isn’t it ?

So when Pope Francis reiterated that only celibate priests can provide the Eucharist to those served by the Roman Rite, and there are dwindling numbers of priests, he was saying that they were not to get the Eucharist Let us be frank, Covid-19 possibly saved his bacon for a while. It is quite baffling that his insistence on this is nowhere to be found in the Gospel accounts of the Last Supper.

What is it with the celibacy thing ?

1.Some say it is cultic, i.e. the pagan belief that ‘priests’ should shun sex to show respect to their gods. As a humble layman, I thought the Incarnation trumped all that.

2.Most people know it is only a Papal ban, originally designed to prevent the children of ordained celebrants, or ‘masspriests’ selling off Church land.

3. Is it a hangover from people like Augustine of Hippo, whose irritation at having to pay for his child’s welfare has rung down through the ages and blamed sex for this? Or those Desert Fathers who didn’t know what a wet dream was ?

4. Is it a fear of contact with that section of the community which menstruates? I have heard of a young man, pillar of the parish, MC at big services, but told not to appear on the altar after marriage? This is a very old fear indeed, since menstruating women were well known for apparently turning the primitive community’s milk sour.

5. Is it just physicality itself ? Readers of this blog will be familiar with the experience of the Thirties Catholic writer, Dr Halliday Sutherland, who in Forties Ireland , heard of people who had left the Church for years having heard that nuns and priests had bowel movements.

6. Is it because St Peter was asked to leave the Last Supper before the inauguration of the Eucharist because he was married?

7. Is it because the idea of man and woman being one flesh is a bit beneath them?

8. Is it because the expression ‘married priests’, with all the connotations of children’s jammy fingers among nthe chasubles and a bossy mother in law controlling the Union of Catholic Mothers is off-putting? The idea of a celibate priest supported by a priest is dead on its feet, as is the elimination of distractions from his work. What do priests today do in the afternoon?

9.Is it a calculated insult to the other 23 sections- or Rites- of the Church-where parishioners can be ordained to provide the Eucharist, married or not?

10. Is it a quasi-masonic band of compulsorily celibate brothers ,determined to make others suffer because they can’t have sex, officially, of course?

None of these does Pope Francis particular credit- or any credit- or whatever reason he had. I grant you that he is surrounded by people like Cardinal Sarah, who would have us hear Masas facing East, whatever the configuration of the building (think about it!) Or Cardinal Burke. Or, of course Emeritus Pope Doppelganger, wandering about the Vatican like a child in trick or treat mode.

We must conclude that the Pope is old and tat it is getting to him. This blog knows the feeling, I assure you, and the unwanted grip on the elbows to get us up stairs.

Pope Francis has done his best. It was probably too much to accept a complete clear out of the Curia, although he did tell them in style what we thought of them.

We put our faith in the next Pope. I have known many Jesuits- many,many Jesuits. I’ll still bet on another one- young, dynamic, focussed on what really matters.

Keep Your Eye On Amazon (not that one)

05 Tuesday Dec 2017

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The Pan-Amazon Synod of bishops is going to be a very important milestone in Church history. And maybe world history. We will be mentioning it frequently
As you may know, it is about extending ordination to viri probati in areas particularly short of priests and therefore of the Eucharist.
As always, some elements of Catholic opinion are beginning to panic in case the acceptance of this becomes a precedent. (translation : more people may receive the Eucharist)
The elements of the Tridentine priesthood thought to be in danger are:
Celibacy
Lengthy theological education
General Absolution
Priesthood Image.
We will comment on all of these while we can-I remind you that we are all 80 plus, bar one.
Let’s have a quick look at compulsory celibacy first. To get it out of the way , everybody knows it is a church regulation not a doctrinal blasphemy, and it could be rescinded tomorrow, even by email.
Some random points :
(a) It’s amazing how many people want other people to be celibate. There’s old priests, who seem to feel that if they could handle it, everybody else should and so there.
(b) Dr Halliday Sutherland, probably the third best Catholic writer of the Thirties , and a best seller in his own right, became a well-known travel writer. In his ‘Irish Journey’, he recalls meeting someone who left the Church for several years on hearing that priests and nuns used the toilet

(c) There’s priests who have made being celibate a kind of religion in itself.
(d) At a point even farther away from Christ’s message than the Communion Hymn and with it some of the other contents of hymnals is church property. Gibbon mentions one of the early popes having been found guilty of everything but piracy, but even the latter didn’t put the safety of church property at the hands of a priest’s family being one of the reasons why celibacy became obligatory .Look at the many heaps of ruined masonry to be found all over Europe ,now used as a free masonry supermarket or a urinal, and wonder if Pope Gregory VII ever thought- really thought- about what he was doing to the hundreds of thousands of priests who have had to struggle since.
(e) There are many who fear that the Eucharist is being disrespected in some way by ordained celebrants. They either can’t read newspapers, watch television, or don’t know about paedophile priests being put back into parishes having been found out. They are –apparently- impressed by celibacy. This is possible and Christ did not , of course, forbid it. But celibacy is much more impressive when accompanied by poverty and obedience, as in the religious orders. Somehow it is not quite so impressive when accompanied by golf club membership and an annual change of car.
( One has to wonder if there is a psychological factor in the horrendous levies placed on parishes run by religious orders by their dioceses. One Glasgow parish has to pay £40000 a year for the privilege of providing the Eucharist.)
(f) And what about the Curia in all this, that institution once praised by ‘Time’ magazine for its Prussian efficiency and the business competence of General Motors ? The magazine has not yet, to our knowledge noticed that Hitler was a product of the Prussian ethos or that General Motors has since gone twice bankrupt..They see Pope Francis daily. Have they responded in any way to his observations?
(g) Compulsory celibacy will be a problem. A bigger one, we venture , will be General Absolution.
More. we assure you, to follow.

Celibacy? It’s Alive !

12 Sunday Nov 2017

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Until today, we thought there were no more laughs to be gained from necessity of being celibate to bring the Eucharist to the Flock as Christ told us. And we are including the contribution made by the Bishop of Shrewsbury, already mentioned. In all charity, we’re not going to mention this priest’s name, or the website it’s in. We don’t make these things up, as you will know, If only we had to ! But it’s worth a laugh .
As we all know, it is beginning to be recognised what a stupid thing it was to make celibacy compulsory in the 12th century, to prevent the priest’s family from selling off the church buildings once he died. It should have taken only a century or so’s thought to find some other way. Instead it’s been going on since then, with who knows what damage to the Church. Like, say, the Reformation for starters?
Anyway, God bless him, he’s doing his best.
He says that the debate on married clergy ‘often focuses on pragmatic questions , it usually ignores the rich theological reasons behind the celibate priesthood’. If there has ever been the slightest doubt about celibacy being an obstacle in providing the Eucharist, we would say that that is so pragmatic a question it takes us right back to the Last Supper. Even after a minute or two’s thought, we have to admit that this is a point which has to put the Incarnation in question. Just a thought.
‘Jesus Christ Himself never married, and there’s something about imitating the life our Lord in full that is very attractive’ he tells us. I think we have to wonder how far making the lives of priests in the 21st century attractive is part of the Gospel message . It is certainly not mentioned at the Last Supper.
We have often felt that the Tridentine priesthood likes to give itself a pat n the back for celibacy, but his next remark takes this point of view unbelievably far into the next world. Ready?
‘Christ himself said that no one would be married or given in marriage in heaven and therefore celibacy is a sign of the beatific vision’ (name of priest) pointed out.
We recovered only briefly from paroxsysms of laughter, to fall into them again at the phrase ‘pointed out’. ‘Married life will pass away when we behold God face to face and become part of the bridal church’ (name) added. ‘The celibate is more of a direct symbol of that ‘
As we used to say when we were young, ‘Waow!’
It’s quite sad, all this. All we can do is pray for people who still think making sure that world gets the Eucharist is less important than getting it from unmarried men.

Why Can’t We All Get The Eucharist?

13 Sunday Aug 2017

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We mentioned last week the problems which the ordinary Catholic can meet daily in the bizarre and mysterious hothouse religious atmosphere of 21st century Scotland. We have considerable respect for our fellow Christians , whether or not they would wish it of course. Given the propensity of many of our ministers of religion , it is only natural that ‘paedo ‘ is now apparently an accepted anti-Catholic insult. This at least makes a kind of sense, since it has superseded ‘Fenian’, a reference to an outdated Irish political movement, notable only really for its tendency to use pubs as strategic planning centres.
We repeat our view that anti-Catholicism still exists in 2017 only because of the psychological phenomenon known colloquially as ‘kick the cat’, explicable against a background of extensive immigration frequently with an alien and intense religious infrastructure ,adverse comment on which, should it exist, of course, is actually illegal. .
Last week we highlighted the problems of the ordinary Catholic at work and possibly on his way home from it. But that in a sense is only a detail. What about when he or she actually gets home, to a young or teenage family ?
Here we have once more to comment briefly on celibacy, that church regulation, with no doctrinal significance, which was founded to prevent the families of married clergymen a thousand years ago from selling off church buildings , the ruins of which in 2017 dot Europe. From the Pope downwards, excluding possibly St. Pope John Paul II’s relationship , however chaste, with another man’s wife which may have just given him an inkling , the average Catholic priest knows nothing about the family life of a married Catholic. This cannot be emphasised enough, although if we are given the strength, we will give our best to do so, we assure you.
No matter how saintly the Tridentine priest, he knows nothing about being the father of a family. To avoid the possibility of misunderstanding, we repeat that the word is ‘Nothing. ‘
The only thing that the average Catholic father of a teenage family can be sure of is the message of Christ. He has had twenty years or so of avoiding the gaze of his young family when a paedophile priest appears , as is practically universal in the middle of a TV drama. But he will have done his best, as the fathers of Catholic families do, to ensure that his family has been baptised , confirmed and received the Eucharist . These occasions will have been marked, always, by a church service, and continue to be so, although ridiculed as being ‘bouncy castle Catholicism’. Although why the reception of the Eucharist should not be welcomed and made a landmark in the life of the child even if a bouncy castle is involved is entirely a matter of conscience for those who object.
Christ in the Eucharist is still the centre of their lives, and they show this by making It the centre of their very difficult attempts to carry on their loyalty – and affection- to Him.
It is a simple matter of fact that at no time in the history of the entire world has it been more possible for any section of the community to be under more pressure than the Catholic teenager.
The Augustine legacy of sexuality as evil, although a natural biological impulse , is meaningless to the world of social media in which they live. And how can we expect them to make sense of this, , without any guidance from spiritual leadership enmeshed in the Augustine nonsense ?
Obviously, there is money in sex, and every possible method of making this is utilised in making it .
How the parent of a young Catholic family can make a distinction between this constant and attractive input of informative data and living a life as Christ wished us to is as near as impossible .
And yet they do their best , despite the apparent inability of their priests to join them.
A recent investigation into the WWI history of one of our grandparents, in the Royal Irish Rifles, revealed the regimental motto of ‘Quis Separabit ?’ a motto beloved of many Irish groups, misused often for political reasons.
Its validity is none the less unaffected. It means ‘Who Shall Divide Us From the Love of Christ ? ‘
Those who run To Feed The Flock, like those who run countless other blogs and websites throughout the world, have attended Holy Thursday services, accept that the purpose of the Incarnation was to provide the world with the ultimate gift, that of the Eucharist, which would transform our lives and the world itself with all its blazing implications.
Unfortunately providing the Eucharist has been for a thousand years or so largely in the hands of a section of the Church, celibate, over-stuffed with theology and supported by a parish, and bizarrely reluctant to extend providing the Eucharist to others, although nowadays largely defunct, and unwilling to do so. And worse still, thanks to paedophily and its cover ups, not being listened to at all. The question of ‘Quis Separabit ?’ is being answered daily.
Why cannot our bishops extend the provision of the Eucharist to parishioners all over the world ? Why cannot the bishops of Scotland accept the invitation of our Pope Francis to discuss this ?
Why, when the smoke clears away, do they condone our separation from the love of Christ?

A World Of His Own- And Definitely Not Ours

03 Sunday Apr 2016

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The homily of the Bishop of Shrewsbury in his Chrism Mass , reported in the online ‘Catholic Herald’, spoke on celibacy: ‘If the Mass were ever reduced to a commemorative meal and the priest as only a community leader or functionary , then the celibacy of the Catholic priesthood might seem extravagant. However once the ministerial priesthood is seen in the light of Christ’s own total self-giving….then the self-giving of priestly celibacy becomes a reflection of the truth of Christ’s own self-gift.’
No one, of course, has wished to see the Mass ‘reduced to a commemorative meal ‘ for several hundred years. Surprisingly, the Bishop does not seem to recognise that as a Lutheran theological position, and a Lutheran expression. He is , irrelevantly, rather dismissive of community leaders or functionaries apparently in general. What exactly he is talking about is not terribly clear, except that it seems to be about the Mass. Now the only recent alteration in Mass and the provision of the Eucharist has been Pope Francis’s permission to allow married men to be ordained in the Eastern Church. If his comments are directed at this, then he must be very careful indeed, because they are therefore directed at the Apostolic Succession. One wonders what Canon Law has to say about this. I
It will be easy enough for some to dismiss this as merely pietistic gibberish. But in his remarks , of course, the Bishop also dismisses the thousand years before celibacy became mandatory and that merely to preserve church property . He may have been having a bad day, but let’s look again at what he says.
Consider : ‘..once the ministerial priesthood is seen in the light of Christ’s own total self-giving’ . One might ask who has ever seen this except the kind of priest who thinks he’s an Alter Christus. You wouldn’t think things could get worse than that. But to equate the celibate ‘ministerial priesthood’ with ‘ Christ’s own total self giving is to equate the cosmic blast of the Incarnation itself with deciding one day not to walk up a church aisle to get married.
At least a line has been drawn. Thanks to the Bishop, there’s now an end to it. As they say, there’s no answer to that! If you’re up there as part of the Incarnation, well that’s it!
To be fair, irony is a tricky concept, often misunderstood. To be charitable in this Easter time, it is possible that the Bishop of Shrewsbury is ironically describing the Tridentine priesthood’s vision of itself. We know, we know, but we have to be charitable. But experts in textual analysis would notice that the word ‘self’ is used three times in the final sentence. What, the untutored might say, about the rest of us ? Still, there’s bound to be an ad limina visit soon. Oh to be a fly on the wall !
The expression ‘commemorative meal’ is rather naughty of His Lordship. But when ordination is extended to parishioners in the Western Church as in the Eastern Church, Mass, be it said by taxi-drivers or newsagents, or community leaders or functionaries (!) , it will provide the Eucharist for the Flock, as Christ asked at the Last Supper.
And it won’t be merely a ‘commemorative meal’ either.

Celibacy ? Really ?

26 Sunday Oct 2014

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No. 2 of To Feed The Flock’s 10 suggestions for extending ordination reads as follows:
“ (ii) celibacy is already waived to permit convert Anglican clergymen to be
ordained as priests. It would still exist, of course for religious orders.”
Part 1.
(Obviously, this blog will not take up an anti-celibacy position.
We are old-fashioned enough to still pay heed to the Gospels, in this case
to Matthew 19:12 . The positive merits of celibacy are encapsulated on many websites,
and are particularly valuable to the religious orders, the engine room
of the Church to come.)
What we will take exception to is when it keeps the Eucharist from the Flock.

Thackeray is said to have leapt and danced round the room several times when “Vanity Fair” as a title occurred to him. When the expression “married priest” comes up in any conversation dealing with why we are not allowed to get the Eucharist, it is tempting to do the same,for very different reasons.
The expression “married priest” immediately creates a contra-cultural roadblock in any discussion about how the Eucharist is to given to the world as Christ asked.
The image of the Tridentine celibate parish-supported secular priest is part of the very fibre of the Western Church, gathering about itself even among the more rational of us certain expectations and suppositions. Dr Halliday Sutherland
in his “Irish Journey” reminded us that there can be less rational expectations and suppositions when he met someone who had given up the Church for two years having heard that priests used the toilet.
“Married priest” for some seems inevitably to bring to mind children’s jammy fingers among the chasubles , bell, book and candle for recalcitrant mothers in law, and a wide range of other distinctly distracting matrimonial situations.
The problem appears to have solved itself. There can never now be married priests supported by a parish, except in the case of Anglican converts.
The secular priest as a phenomenon has almost disappeared, taking with it the distinctly dodgy concept- given its obvious track record in recent years- of “vocation”. The real “problem” with celibacy of course has been compulsory
celibacy , to avoid claims on Church property by a priest’s children, embarrassing short-sighted and ludicrous though this may seem to us, but one which made sense in its way to small agricultural mediaeval communities. The past is another world, the mediaeval world another universe, and yet the provision of the Eucharist for the Flock still depends on it in 2014, in the world of the megapolis,of instant world-wide communication , of sex as a dominant, pervasive
element of society.
Does celibacy really have anything at all to do with Christ’s imperative that we change our lives and our world through the Eucharist ?

(to be continued)