Clerical Celibacy: An Unanswered Question

At each of the four Masses in Eind hoven's Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Dutch Bishop Willem Bekkers mounted the pulpit to tell the parish some startling news: two of their priests were resigning from the ministry, and one of them was planning to marry a widow with five children.

Since the priests had found them selves unable to keep their vows of chastity, explained the bishop, they had applied to Rome for dispensation from all clerical obligations. Bekkers, obviously sympathetic to the priests, asked the congregation not to reproach or condemn them but to pray for them, pointing out that they intended to remain loyal members of the church.

The bishop's bold public announcement pointed up what is, next to birth control, the major unfinished business of the Second Vatican Council. At the fourth session, Pope Paul bluntly told the bishops not to discuss the possibility of changing the church's rule on clerical celibacy, and council decrees strongly reinforced the traditional stand. But Rome has since discovered that the issue will not go away. Last month a group of Italian priests petitioned the Pope to relieve them from the celibacy obligation, arguing that it was an "intolerable burden" and that the rule had no basis in either Scripture or natural law. A similar petition was recently sent to Rome by 33 Brazilian priests, who claimed that they had the support of "hundreds and hundreds" of their fellow clerics. Theologians have continued to speculate on the problem, and within recent months Roman Catholic publishers in the U.S. have put out three books dealing critically with priestly celibacy.-

A Married Pope. At least one of Christ's Apostles-St. Peter-had a wife, and as late as 867, a married man became Pope: Adrian II. It was not until the First Lateran Council in 1123 that clerical marriage was clearly outlawed, and even after that priests, bishops and cardinals continued to skirt the rule by taking mistresses. Alexander VI fathered at least four children before he became Pope in 1492. French Historian Henri Daniel-Rops estimated that in 15th century Burgundy, half the children born out of wedlock were fathered by clerics.

Even now, following the tradition of Orthodoxy, Eastern-rite Catholic priests are allowed to marry before ordination (except in the U.S. and Canada, where Latin-rite Catholic bishops have until now opposed the idea as "giving rise to scandal"). Pope Paul and his two predecessors gave dispensations to a handful of convert Protestant ministers who were ordained in Europe as priests, even though they already had wives and children. Last month the Archbishop of Mariana in Brazil presided at the marriage of Pedro Maciel Vidigal, a former priest who was released from his vows by the Vatican, and is now a member of Congress.

A number of Catholic theologians have argued in recent years that a vocation to the priesthood and a vocation to celibacy do not necessarily exist in the same person. French Dominican Yves Congar, an influential theological adviser at the council, has suggested that a married diocesan clergy might be better able than single priests to enter into the life of the people. Dutch Theologian Rudolf Bunnik says that since there is no convincing reason for a celibate priesthood, it is "an anomaly" to have a church law requiring it.

10,000 Requests. Such theoretical arguments for revision are underscored by ample evidence that many priests find celibacy their heaviest burden. Around the world about 60,000 priests have left the ministry, and many of them have married. Rome's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly the Holy Office, has on file at least 10,000 applications from priests asking to be released from their vows. At the fourth session of the council, Latin American bishops privately circulated a survey of 1,000 Brazilian priests, indicating that a majority were unhappy about their unmarried state. Another Latin American survey suggested that many priests who found celibacy no problem were either emotionally immature or latent homosexuals.

In his study, New Zealand's Father O'Neill suggests that while celibacy should not be abandoned, priests unable to live up to the vow might be allowed to marry and then continue with their duties. Thanks to pressure from missionary bishops, the council did clear the way toward the ordination of married deacons, who could distribute Communion and give instruction but not hear confessions or celebrate Mass. Some theologians predict that eventually the church will let priests marry or not as they wish, requiring celibacy only for those with a vocation to a religious order.

* Is Celibacy Outdated?, by the German lay theologian Ida Gorres (Newman, 950); The Priest: Celibate or Married, by Pierre Hermand, a former French Dominican who was laicized by the Vatican at his own request (Helicon, $3.75); Priestly Celibacy and Maturity, by the Rev. David O'Neill of New Zealand (Sheed & Ward, $3.95).

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