Priests of the Catholic Church: Marriage or God

With a growing decline in numbers of young Catholic priests, Edward Daly, former bishop of Northern Ireland, has recently called for an end to celibacy in the Catholic clergy.

Considered a high-profile bishop of Derry for approximately 20 years and one of the country’s best-known priests, Daly helped tend the dead and wounded during the 1972 Irish Bloody Sunday, or the Bogside Massacre, in Derry Northern Ireland against the British Army. He is the most senior figure in Irish Catholicism to challenge the ban on the celibacy of Catholic clergy. Catholic priests in the country of Ireland are seriously declining as the older clergy die out, while very few young men choose to become celibate. This has forced the Irish Catholic Church to transfer priests in from Poland and the developing world to fill the gap. According to a BBC article, “Bishop Daly calls for an end to clerical celibacy ,” the former bishop reports, “I think priests should have the freedom to marry if they wish…I’m worried about the decreasing number of priests and the number of older priests. I think it’s an issue that needs to be addressed, and addressed urgently.” Disagreeing with former bishop Edward Daly is Father Paul Blackburn, an ordained Roman Catholic priest and chaplain at the Royal Blackburn Hospital in Burnley, England. According to BBC’s article, “Married priest: ‘Singly clergy better placed to serve God’,” Father Paul is married with three children, who believes that the Catholic Church is correct to prefer single celibate clergy in their parishes. “Whatever the church decides about the future shape of ministry there will always be a need for celibate priests,” Father Paul told BBC Radio Lancashire. He emphasized that single priests are better placed to serve God by giving their entire life to his ministry. The Roman Catholic Church is firm on the belief that Catholic priests remain single and celibate, claiming it is God’s will through apostolic authority. Well-known is Paul the Apostle, who teaches that marriage is a social obligation that distracts from Christ. He strongly teaches that celibacy is the key of life when he sends letters to the Corinthian Church: “I desire to have you to be free from cares. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; but he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife.” (Matthew 19) Catholic priests are thought to be the successors of the apostles, who practice mandatory celibacy. Therefore, priests also should practice celibacy as followers of this age-old religion. When Jesus called up Peter, he had been married before becoming an apostle. To practice celibacy is to practice a life that is a reflection of what Heaven is like. However, critics against celibacy for Catholic priests feel that celibacy is an early ruling, not of the church. According to Reuters, the Catholic Pope has the power to allow former married Anglican ministers to become Catholic priests ---viewing each case individually.