Catholics' romance with celibacy: is the end near?

• Author: Dinter, Paul E.
• Position: Includes related information

IF "ROMANCE" can connote any inordinate attachment, then Catholicism can be said to have a long-standing infatuation with "perfect chastity"--the vowed commitment to abstain from sexual relations for the sake of the Kingdom of God. As infatuations go, however, new knowledge and maturer ideals can erode earlier unquestioned devotion. Today, as Catholic Christianity faces its third millennium, a profound change seems to be afoot. The requirement of celibacy is being questioned as never before and found wanting.

This opinion is not a minority one. Even among bishops, one can find sympathy for a rethinking of the mandate that they ordain only celibate males. Yet, loyalty to the Holy Father (as the Pope is addressed to emphasize his uniqueness) and not a little fear of reprisal keeps most secretly dissenting bishops silent. When the laity (who, despite john Henry Cardinal Newman's pioneering work in the 1860s on "consulting the faithful," never are consulted unless there is no chance of their disagreeing with the hierarchy) are polled by religious and secular opinion centers, they regularly rack up healthy majorities in favor of a change.

Priests themselves, only some of whom take an actual vow of chastity in religious life, look more and more like cast members in a B movie about a sinking lifeboat. After a recent telephone interview I did on Wisconsin Public Radio, I received a letter from a pastor in the Lacrosse diocese that cited the statistics on the ratio of priests per parish. In 1985, there were 193 priests in the diocese serving 192 churches, 39 of which had no resident clergy. In 1992, there were 156 priests to serve 190 churches, 62 of which had no priest in residence. The prospects for the future are grimmer yet. There are only eight men in the major seminary, while 88 of the priests already are over 60 years old. The picture is clear, but it is not being interpreted very well at all.

In the years preceding the 1950s, when the decline in vocations began, many young men who had a Catholic upbringing seriously considered seeking ordination. Seminary authorities were liberal in only one regard--in freely dismissing men they considered unsuitable. With dismissals and dropouts, the ordained normally represented just five-10% of those who had entered the seminary from the high school through graduate school years. The pickings were abundant then, but those days are long gone.

Today, the great majority of thoughtful, committed, enterprising, and selfless young men who survive college thinking the church has something to offer reject the opportunity to study for the priesthood. Catholic parents do not encourage their children as they once did, for more and more of them see the lonely, custodial tasks that priests are charged with as less than what they want for their sons. Young women, who themselves used to try out the convent in great numbers in the years before females had other opportunities open for them, no longer give even tacit acceptance to their male peers who indicate an interest in Catholic priesthood. Most teenagers today seem to assume that anyone wanting to be celibate as a condition of service in the church must be suffering from some kind of sexual dysfunction.

In short, a healthy majority of Catholics have fallen out of love with the ideal of...