Opinion

Changing celibacy rule would not be quick fix for vocations

Pope Francis
Pope Francis Pope Francis

THE fact that Pope Francis - without making a formal statement on the matter - has not just refused to close the door on changing the compulsory celibacy rule for priests but appears to encourage discussion on the subject, means that debate around it, as with so many issues that legitimately concern the faithful, will intensify.

It was interesting to see Archbishop Eamon Martin say in a Hot Press interview recently that he would have “no objection” if the Church at some point made it optional for priests to get married.

Dr Martin was obviously availing of the freer atmosphere in the Church since the election of Pope Francis but stressed his support for the existing rule and the “great graces within celibacy.”

Francis may be too timid for some liberals and too adventurous for some conservatives in the Church but thanks to his encouragement of debate on this and other issues the days are long gone when an Irish bishop could be summoned to Rome for a dressing-down for publicly calling for a debate on clerical celibacy.

That happened this summer 21 years ago to Bishop Brendan Comiskey of Ferns.

He had a public falling out on the matter with a predecessor of Eamon Martin, Cardinal Cahal Daly, even though he protested he was just calling for a debate and not supporting a change in the celibacy rule itself which is not a matter of doctrine or dogma but one of discipline.

Dr Comiskey was concerned by the fall in vocations which is now considerably more serious but his “primary focus [was] rather the need for a more open Church which our age calls for.”

In a statement on August 9, 1995 the bishop (who was later forced to resign over his mishandling of a clerical sex abuse scandal) said he was astounded by the numbers of people who had responded positively to his call for a more open Church.

His words are worth quoting further because at this remove they have a prophetic quality.

“It is lack of such openness in our Church which is the primary source of concern… After all there was no essential doctrine at stake. Let us be guided by the axiom: In essential matters unity; in matters which are not of the core of the faith, freedom; in all things, charity.”

It is far from satisfactory, if unsurprising, that there is no standing structure within the Church at any level, diocesan, national or universal for the People of God - laity, priests, bishops and religious together - to carefully examine this important non-doctrinal issue of celibacy and other such matters.

That lack of a forum in the Church for determining the views of the People of God on the subject of governance and collegiality – the sharing of power and responsibility between the Pope and the college of bishops - “or anything else for that matter “as she put it was powerfully highlighted by Mary McAleese in her 2012 book Quo Vadis? Collegiality in the Code of Canon Law [Columba].

Citing Canon Law Mrs McAleese pointed out that the faithful have the right and “even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church…” but there is no forum in which they can do it.

If there was such a forum and it discussed celibacy it would probably show that changing the general rule on compulsory celibacy, a discipline that has lasted nearly a thousand years, is a more complex issue than many may think.

While a change would provide some extra priests here and there - something welcome in itself - it would not be a quick fix for the shortage in vocations, a point also made by Archbishop Martin.

Those who think that relaxing the celibacy rule to permit married men to become priests, or re-admitting to ministry ordained married men who have been laicised, would be something of a panacea might bear in mind that the Church of England has a vocations crisis even though it permits married priests and nearly a quarter of its full time clergy are women.

That shortage of priestly vocations will only be ultimately addressed by a change of heart within homes and families, by parents and grandparents and other relatives of faith showing a genuine openness of heart to the idea of their sons and grandsons seriously considering priesthood and discussing it with them alongside all the other options in a prayerful way.