moonless spring sky
in inky darkness --
my eyes closed
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Washington Post: "Priestly Celibacy: A Self-Inflicted Wound" (by Susan Jacoby)“Should the Catholic priesthood be restricted to single, celibate men? Do clergy restrictions based on gender, marital status or sexual orientation make sense these days?
“… Palestinians and Israelis are going to embrace one another in a joint ceremony at the Wailing Wall and the Dome of the Rock before the rigid old men who run the Vatican open up the doors of the priesthood to people who want to serve their god and enter into the full experience of loving and being loved by another human being….
“The vast majority of American Catholics see no need for priestly celibacy and support the ordination of women…. Pope Benedict XVI will not change his position on female priests or on priestly celibacy. One of the most ridiculous rationales for priestly celibacy used by the church has always been the notion that the celibacy requirement is not just about sex but about the need for a priest to be fully free to devote himself to the spiritual needs of his parishioners…
“This church, with no room in its priesthood for women or for men who simply wanted to love and live with another adult, then proceeded to turn a blind eye to the pedophile predators whose evil deeds were covered up by the hierarchy for decades….
“In the U.S., an astonishing 25 percent of those raised as Catholics have left the church. Priestly celibacy, like the church's position on birth control and female priests, is part of the mix that has led so many once-loyal Catholics out of the church….”
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….Ditto. It just seems that the Vatican has stubbornly been turning a blind eye to a reality that an increasingly greater number of its flock finds compelling. More and more are seeing that the times need a revisiting of “dogmas” that appear to be so illogical, silly, and no longer in touch with its flock and its needs. Perhaps the times are ripe for a Third Vatican Council. Not under this pope though....
