The Case Against Celibacy

During a private audience with Pope John XXIII one December afternoon in 1960, the French Catholic philosopher Etienne Gilson touched on the subject of priestly celibacy. "The Pope's face became gloomy, darkened by a rising inner cloud," Gilson later reported. "Then the Pope added in a violent tone, almost a cry: 'For some of them it is martyrdom. Yes, a sort of martyrdom. It seems to me that sometimes I hear a sort of moan, as if many voices were asking the church for liberation from the burden. What can I do? Ecclesiastical celibacy is not a dogma. It is not imposed in the Scriptures. How simple it would be: we take up a pen, sign an act, and priests who so desire can marry tomorrow. But this is impossible. Celibacy is a sacrifice which the church has imposed upon herself -- freely, generously and heroically.' "

A soft-spoken former French Dominican, Pierre Hermand, 44, thinks that priests should have the choice of being celibate or marrying, if they wish to do so. Last year he left the Dominican order and in defiance of the church authorities published his arguments in a book called The Priestly State -- Marriage or Celibacy? Recalling the early days of solitude in Aix-en-Provence, after having torn himself from the only life that was his since boyhood, he said: "I walked the windswept streets making the unconscious gesture of touching my new suit, feeling for the robe that was no longer there."

It Can Be Done. The thesis of Hermand's book was too revolutionary even for the left-wing Catholic weekly Temoignage Chretien (Christian Witness), which bitterly assailed it. Yet Paris' Le Monde gave the book extensive coverage, while Combat and other papers came openly to Hermand's defense. Vatican influence banished the book from Catholic bookshops in Rome. In Portugal the government ordered the Portuguese edition of 3,000 copies seized after it went on sale, but the cops managed to round up only 200 volumes.

"Celibacy is possible; no serious psychologist pretends otherwise," states Hermand. Having himself entered the seminary at 13, Hermand makes the point that many candidates for the priesthood take the vow of chastity while their manhood is still dormant.

The heart of his thesis is that celibacy deprives the priest of man's essential humanity and separates him from the world in which he is supposed to minister. Hermand also argues that celibacy makes the recruitment of priests difficult and, as a corollary, gives rise to sexual transgressions on the part of priests. In France there are about 4,000 former priests and in Italy 15,000, and the fact that most are married testifies to their rejection of the celibate state.

Praise from Country Priests. Since leaving the Dominican order, Hermand has worked part-time as an accountant while studying for a degree in psychology. A TIME correspondent found him sitting in a small, stark, rented room that resembles a monk's cell. A few books lay on an oak table; there was an iron bed, a worn pair of slippers tucked underneath. A tall, narrow, curtainless window looked out on a garden where a summer rain pelted the leaves of a great elm. Rubbing his bald head, Hermand reminisced.

He had shown the manuscript to a number of fellow priests before deciding to publish it. "Pass it around; it is excellent," they had said after reading it.

"Show it in private, but don't publish it.

Be reasonable." While eager to talk about the book, they kept silent in public. "My ideas seemed to provoke a sort of fear." Soon after the book went on sale, the publisher began sending Hermand big brown envelopes containing letters from readers. "At the peak, I received a hundred in one week. Who wrote most? Country priests--those men who live the loneliest of lonely lives. They understood my book; they encouraged me." Then, with an almost apologetic smile. Hermand opened a briefcase and took out a piece of paper, his official release from holy vows. "I am completely free," said Hermand, "except from the vow of chastity." On Catholicism's theory of once-a-priest--always-a-priest, Hermand must even now remain celibate or suffer excommunication.

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