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Church in the WorldCelibacy should be optional, say Australian priestsAustralasia 23 October 2004
More than half of Australia's Catholic priests believe celibacy should be optional, according to a report presented to the country's Catholic bishops.
The yet-to-be-released report found that 55 per cent of priests in Australia queried obligatory celibacy. A further 16 per cent saw celibacy in a negative light.
The report, which has been presented to the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference, is an analysis of the Catholic Church Life Survey of priests in parish ministry conducted in May 2001.
"For many clergy, the maintenance of celibacy is no longer a valued feature of priestly identity", the website Online Catholics quoted the report as saying. "Most believe that it would not be detrimental to the Church if the obligation of celibacy were removed."
"Priests over 66 were more orthodox in their attitude to celibacy and the readmittance of resigned priests - the subtext of that is accepting married priests", she said. "The youngest priests also show a tendency to be more orthodox. The ones going into seminary now are a lot more conservative, which is not surprising given the culture of the organisation at the moment."
Power said official church attitudes towards homosexuality had negative effects on gay priests. She said dismissive or denigrating responses perpetuated a climate of ignorance and anxiety, while misconceptions about a link between homosexuality and child sexual abuse demonised gay clergy.
"I've had estimates of between 50 and 60 per cent of priests being gay in Australia, but that's just word of mouth", she said. "No one really knows." |
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