CELIBACY MATH

With the vow of chastity a priest forswears sex. All sex.

Within Roman Catholic moral theology, there are two kinds of sexual activities, licit and illicit.

LICIT SEX

There’s only one licit sex act, the “marriage act,” which is penis in vagina ejaculation. (Obviously, gay sex is not included.)

But not all penis in vagina ejaculation is licit. The marriage act is licit only if the participants are married and if there are no artificial barriers to conception employed.

Acts leading up to and following a licit marriage act, (e.g. foreplay) are also licit.

Example:

During a brief moment of privacy Person X and Person Y kiss
passionately and squeeze each other’s buttocks.

In most cases this would be considered illicit. However, if persons X and Y were a married couple, and if they intended to use the sexual arousal to heighten a later licit marriage act, then this would qualify as foreplay, and would be licit.

ILLICIT SEX

All acts aimed at achieving sexual pleasure that are not licit as defined above are illicit.

Priests talk about celibacy as giving up the pleasures of marriage. The usual rationale is time management—not enough time for a family and for a religious career. They talk about giving up only the licit sex.

It is assumed, that as Catholics, they have already “given up” all illicit sex.

So, a Catholic man whose sexual impulses are directed exclusively at other men has no desire for licit sex. His only desires are for illicit sex. For him, the vow of chastity is no sacrifice at all.

For gay men, the value of Step C in the chart above is zero. Therefore the value of Step D (vow of celibacy) is also zero.

The same math applies to men whose sexual impulses are directed exclusively at children.

The same math applies to men who are so geeky and awkward and emotionally twisted that the social expectation that they will “get married” feels like a huge unwanted burden. For them, too, the vow of celibacy, rather than a sacrifice, provides relief.

So we’ve identified three types of men for whom the vow of celibacy is insignificant: gays, pedophiles, emotionally immature.

I think this explains why such people are over-represented among Catholic priests.

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