WHAT A MARRIED PRIEST CAN TEACH ABOUT CELIBACY IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

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The concept of virginity at this time of deification of sex and the reign of impulses as a method of achieving freedom may sound old-fashioned and even unnatural. In the case of celibacy of priesthood in the Catholic Church,it has been blamed for the decline of priestly vocations and even noted it as the root of the sexual abuse perpetrated by priests. But the experience of married priests that profess in the Catholic Churh of Eastern and Byzantine Rite questions this mainstream reasoning .

The testimony of a Catholic priests of Eastern rite who was parish priest of San Vladimiro, Posadas and in charge of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic community in the Archdiocese of Barcelona, speaks of very practical aspects which married priests have to deal with. The most prominent of all is the problem of obtaining sustenance for their families, who are usually numerous, so they have to get a job in addition to the work in the parish they serve and that reduced the attention to parishioners. Not to mention the care that they owe to their children and his wife "imosh". Time has taught them that they need to give these women a special preparation to be a priest´s wife, because of what this life demanded from them. (1)

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The problem reaches even the legal and tax area. For example ,i n Spain,money is assigned to the parish priests,but not to those who are married. (2) in addition to the problems of inheritance which seems to lead to the fact that the properties of the Church get in the hands of the descendants of the priest. (3)

This issue is so important that during "the episcopal Synod on the Eucharist” (2005) Benedicto XVI put it to consideration of the prelates. The main opposition came from the Bishops of the Eastern rite in whose churches it is optional. They claimed that, far from being a solution, the married priest get many problems, including lack of availability at the service of the community." (4)

The historical experience of these branches of the Catholic Church and some Protestant churches also confirmed that problems of the sexual scandals of priests (whose incidence is equal or less than that of the civilian population) are not exclusive of those who are celibate in the Latin tradition, but also presented among married Protestant pastors and Orthodox and Eastern rite Catholic clergymen. This knocked down the theory that celibacy is a determining factor in its occurrence:

• "The U.S. Evangelical magazine "World" recently published a hard story that reveals that Evangelical married Ministers have been involved in more serious scandals tan that affecting the Catholic Church.

• "The Protestant Church also has a severe problem by its own side: pastoral counselors who abuse their members", the magazine says and explains that the abuse of the Ministry to obtain sexual profits "is a growing phenomenon".

• "The surprising thing about this is that Catholics are not alone," declares the Lutheran pastor John Lundin, founder of the Institute for sexual trauma, commenting on an article of "World" in which three Ministers of different Evangelical denominations accepts its abuses, while none of them has a commitment to celibacy.

• The magazine also points out that the clergy of various religions has no more sexual misbehaviour than the average population and probably less, but receive a very intense scrutiny as a result of the degree of confidence that their role requires.

• "Where the problem comes from is something that most denominations can not learn effectively," says Ian Evison of the Institute Alban of Bethesda, dedicated to the advice of Protestant churches. Moreover, he says that if the figures are inaccurate in the case of Catholics, in the case of Protestants are "quite nebulous".

• "Pedophilia events have occurred in the Episcopal Church," the religious agency Episcopal News Service recently recognized, when revealing some settlements of $ 105 million over this problem . In addition, it recognized that there are other problems related to sexual misconduct that leads to divorce of married Ministers in a recurrence equal to the population in general.

• Therefore, according to Evison,stating that celibacy is the source of the problems facing the Catholic Church is "difficult to sustain in the light of what is happening in the Protestant churches". "" The Protestants are living proof that serious problems of abuses occur even without celibacy ", concluded the expert." (5)

As you can see the celibacy not is the problem. Celibacy is a charism, is an ability or gift to bring fullness the vocation to which one feels called and chooses freely, either civil or religious. This charism has been treasured within the Catholic faith from the old testament to the Book of Revelation, and is not an invention of the Church hierarchy. The love of God is appreciated as a higher gift than the marriage or purely human love: "Is simply a radical way of living Christian love." (6)

The problem, can be due to the fact celibacy is taken as a mandatory law or bureaucratic requirement, rather than the outward expression of a total internal conviction of the greatness of the celibate love that you want to live. For that, it is recommended to improve how to choose and discern a vocation to the Catholic Priesthood, so that candidates can find the way to develop his call by choosing between various forms of service to God within the Church: as a layman, Deacon, consecrated person, priest or monk or other varied and different branches and groups that constitute it.

Another edge of the problem, as mentioned in the testimony of the married pastor San Vladimiro, is the abandonment and solitude in which the priests and pastors are left in many parts of the world:

This part is a call to all all the members of the Church where much can be done to support and take care of all those priests who give their life life to deliver Jesus to every person every day.