Irish Author and Journalist - Danny Morrison

The Church and I

The recent appointment of a gay but celibate man as the new Bishop of Reading – albeit causing a furore and threats of a split within the Church of England – would certainly be unimaginable within the Catholic Church which still sticks doggedly to the precept of celibacy in the priesthood, despite this being a factor in vocations dropping to an all-time low in this country.

Canon Jeffrey John has been in a loving relationship with a man for 27 years which is – if you’ll excuse my language – a hell of a lot longer than most modern, heterosexual marriages last. Were this relationship one of companionship and sexual abstinence then he would not be in breach of Anglican Church law. However, I felt there was something sad and pathetic about the statement Canon John issued to mollify those who have condemned his appointment, which is to take effect in October. He said: “The relationship has not been sexually expressed for years. The love and commitment are, if anything, greater.”

Of course, that hasn’t settled the issue and some of the nine bishops opposed to his appointment declared that they were worried by “the history of the relationship.”

“Homosexuality is a perversion. It kills its pathetic practitioners, spreads disease, and contributes nothing to the human species, threatening the most basic unit of civilisation, the family.”

That’s how one letter writer put it in the ‘The Guardian’ last week.

Yes, it all comes down to whether you believe gay sex to be sinful. I don’t. Gay love is as legitimate, fine and romantic as heterosexual love. The real wrong is the bigotry, narrow-mindedness, intolerance, insensitivity, but also fear, of the homophobic people within society, many of whom are also bullies. If the Bible doesn’t endorse homosexuality, they will say, then it is a sin. I have to admit, the Old Testament was pretty clear on the subject: but then again, the Old Testament advocated poking out eyes and knocking out teeth and Lord knows where that policy would leave us all if we were to follow it to its logical conclusion.

Nowhere in the New Testament is there any indication of celibacy being made compulsory for the Apostles or those they ordained. True, Jesus Christ gave up his home and family, never married and devoted himself completely to spreading his gospel of love.

St Paul looked upon virginity as the condition befitting those who are set apart for the work of ministry. He also wrote that a man or woman who is married is divided whereas a single person has the “power to attend upon the Lord without impediment.”

Out of this the whole notion was to develop over the first two or three centuries of Christianity that a priest is a man who sacrifices himself for the sake of his parishioners and has no children of his own. At a Roman council held by Pope Siricius in 386 an edict was passed forbidding priests to have conjugal intercourse with their wives and the Pope took steps to have the decree enforced throughout Christendom.

But this denial of humanity’s sexual nature has led to lies, hypocrisy and scandal throughout the history of the Catholic church which, at one stage, had at least one married Pope. The Eastern Churches allowed and allow their bishops and priests to marry, as of course did the Protestant churches that emerged from the Reformation. Even up until the eleventh century a large number of priests and bishops openly took wives and begot children.

The exclusive discipline of celibacy, according to canon law, came into force only after the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century.

As I said, the reasons advocated for celibacy were to allow the priest to give his flock his undivided attention, though it was also feared that a priest if married might succumb to pressure from his wife to tell what he heard in the confessional! Today, many people receive lay or professional counselling and trust that their confidentiality will not be breached – whether their counsellor is married or single, male or female, gay or heterosexual.

I think there is something supercilious in the implication that the married clergy of the Protestant denominations are less diligent or pastoral than Catholic clerics. Celibacy should be voluntary or optional but priests and bishops, cardinals and Popes, if they want, should be allowed to marry and have children and experience family life as the majority of their congregation does. They would certainly be in a better and more credible position to give advice to their flock.

Some readers may ask what right do I have to advocate such radical changes in the Catholic Church if I take little or no part in it. Well, I’m a very nosey person. I am a non-practising Catholic for many reasons but still have affection for the church into which I was baptised, confirmed and took communion. And, hopefully, when I am being buried St Teresa’s chapel will allow me a find send-off!

I don’t believe in papal infallibility (nor did the Church, incidentally, until the nineteenth century). I think Catholics should be allowed to divorce (and remarry in the church) instead of having to do verbal gymnastics and stretch the story of their failed marriages to obtain annulments.

I think priests should be allowed to get married and fill the bedrooms of the big parochial houses with lots of children. I think gays, if they have the spiritual commitment, and, ipso facto, women, should be allowed to be priests.

And when I am on about it, I think that gays should have the right to marry.

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