The Roman Catholic Church’s ban on married heterosexual priests has been, is, and will be self-destructive. It is also without any meritorious religious basis. Most of the original 12 Jewish disciples of the Rabbi Jesus were married men. Married Priests were common for over a thousand years in the Church. This celibacy requirement is only about a couple hundred years old. A number of past Popes were married and at least one Pope was the father of another.
Most of the world’s religions find their best recruits for the next generation of spiritual leaders among the children of married Rabbis, Ministers, and Imams. This leaves the Catholic Church with about 1 billion worldwide adherents at a considerable disadvantage.
If a married Episcopal or Anglican Priest leaves that church and becomes a Catholic Priest, he can stay married. The Roman Catholic Church is also in “full communion” with various Eastern Sects (Ukrainian, Armenian, etc.) that permit their priests to marry. The Episcopal and Anglican churches are having a major schism over women and gay priests, but there is no conflict over heterosexual married men as Priests.
Father Alberto Cutie, the Roman Catholic “Latino” TV Priest in Miami fell from grace when he admitted to having fallen in love with a woman (a young boy would have been more predictable but it was a relief to many Catholics anyway). He has decided to become an Episcopalian in order to get married. In protest to the ordination of women and openly gay men as Priests, some married Episcopalian Priests have joined the Catholic Church and all have been allowed to stay married. With a name like Cutie, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he tries to pull a stunt like that. He might be betting that it would take years for the old guys in Rome to figure that one out.
It is unlikely that the Church will be able to engage science and technology to invent a robot or hologram priest that only comes into view during the middle of mass to bless the wine and bread and then promptly disappears. It would also have to make the necessary guest appearances at weddings, funerals, and for last rites.
Even though the Catholic laity has grown significantly over the past 50 years, the number of Priests has dropped precipitously during the same period of time. Where there were once 3 Priests to a parish, many parishes today have to get by with only one full-time or one part-time priest who may also handle another parish or two. After the sexual scandals of the Catholic church were exposed, many problemmatic Priests had to retire or be assigned to administrative tasks far from parishoners and children.
The huge shortage of Priests is the principle reason behind the needless closure of so many catholic churches in the East and Midwest of the United States, and elsewhere in Canada and Europe. More than just killing off important social and charitable centers for entire neighborhoods, the Church is abandoning it flock and many important architectural and artistic treasures of U.S. urban history.
Without a Minister or Rabbi, most Protestant Churches and Jewish Congregations would flounder and die. The same holds true for Catholic communities. Every religion needs local spiritual and organizational leaders – and one in a far-off city is not going to be sufficient for the long-term growth and continuity of any religious group. Even new immigrant Catholics cannot make up for the continuing losses in the Church’s real membership or Priesthood – and many of those immigrants also support a married priesthood. Many “lapsed” Catholics failed to find a competent Priest to be their spiritual guides and they turned elsewhere for important answers.
Instead the Church has had to scramble for priests from the ever-shrinking group of men not interested in marriage. With gays eventually getting the right to marry – that group of interested men will get even smaller. It will be limited to just those men who are uninterested in having any meaningful relationships with women, men, or children – also known as “hermits.” Perhaps the Church’s strong stance against gay marriage is secretly fed by a fear of losing its last recruiting ground for Priests.
For the majority of Roman Catholics around the world who see nothing wrong with having married heterosexual men as Priests, the best route to that end may be in strongly supporting Gay marriage. By ensuring that there are effectively no celibate men available for the Priesthood, coupled with the glaring history of a non-celibate Priesthood and current policies that permit them in associated churches, the Roman Catholic Hierarchy may finally have to give in on this issue as a matter of survival.
This could be a win-win coalition between the GLBT community and the Catholic Laity. Proponents of Proposition 8 in California should present such a cogent argument to one of the largest voting blocks in the state in order to win its passage, and that would eventually have important ancillary benefits.
Of course the stubborn, ossified, narrow-minded, asexual, old men in Rome may refuse any changes until they are all dead, but then that’s just a short time to wait. However the mold would have already been cast to be poured by their successors if the Church wants to be a viable religious organization in the future.
Large and old institutions change very slowly, and in light of the mess the Anglican and Episcopalian Churches are in today, there probably won’t be any women or openly gay people admitted to the Catholic Priesthood if married heterosexual men can again become Priests. But with so many married men (including many former Priests) out there who want to be Priests, the church could be reinvigorated for generations to come by taking just this small step. And over time, understanding, benevolent, and inclusive-minded heterosexual married Priests with wives and children may lead to further changes in just a generation or two.
By Marc Pascal in Phoenix, AZ whose family and friends are mainly Catholic and Jewish. He fully supports gay civil unions or marriage on a civil rights basis. He sincerely hopes that in his lifetime some of his frustrated married male friends can become really great Catholic priests and pass their love of God and the Church onto their children.