ANOTHER ONE WISES UP

Rentapriest blog provides a story about a Swiss Jesuit, Father Lukas Niederberger, who is leaving the priesthood in order to get married.

The gist of the article is that Niederberger’s vocational decision coincided with his growing disaffection with Ratzinger and what Ratzinger represents.

His decision was announced on the same day the pope issued Motu Proprio.

The article continues about Niederberger’s theology—he was a devotee of Hans Kung.

He doesn't see Christianity as a superior religion to others. "I like the image that the Baha'i have of other religions. For them, each religion forms a chapter in a book. And each chapter has its value. Therefore it makes no sense to say that one chapter is better than another. Each one is necessary for the cohesion of the whole book. For me, religious pluralism in the world is part of God's plan. It's His will."

If Father Niederberger is correct about God’s plan for religious pluralism, then the RCC’s aggressive, coercive evangelization of less developed non-European peoples was and remains a horrendous sin.

I love the way Niederberger talks about the "second half" of his life.

"For several years I have been asking myself what I want to do with the second half of my life. But there has been almost no sign of opening in the Catholic Church for the last twenty years," he says. "John Paul II has made it into a monolith that tolerates no diversity. And I don't see any hope of change with the present pope, nor in the future. Progressive Catholics are generally over 65 years old. And the next generation is that of John Paul II. The young priests are very clerical and not at all critical of the hierarchy."

I think one has to repeat the word “vow” only a very few times before it loses meaning and becomes just a sound. Let’s try it: vow vow vow vow vow vow vow…

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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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