Campaign for optional priestly celibacy grows

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September 2003

Campaign for optional priestly celibacy grows
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USCCB's environment program gets a renovation
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Campaign for optional priestly celibacy grows
An August 16 letter signed by more than 160 Milwaukee priests advocating that the priesthood be open to married men has generated a surge of support from other priest associations and lay Catholic organizations and has even sparked the creation a new group: People in Support of Optional Celibacy.

Five other priest associations have said that they are considering taking similar action in September. Priests in the Boston Priests’ Forum, New York’s Voice of the Ordained, the Association of Chicago Priests, the Association of Pittsburgh Priests, and the Southern Illinois Association of Priests are in the process of drafting or approving similar letters, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

All told, the groups represent more than 700 priests in some of the largest U.S. dioceses. The Southern Illinois group includes priests from Belleville, Illinois, the diocese of Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, to whom the Milwaukee priests addressed their original letter.

Lay Catholics are also getting involved. "We felt the priests were very courageous and we wanted to support them," said Lois Ahlhauser, president of the Wisconsin chapter of Call To Action and spokeswoman for the new People in Support of Optional Celibacy. The new Wisconsin-based group is a combined effort of the church reform groups Corpus and Call to Action, as well as Catholics who are not associated with either group, Ahlhauser said.

A letter supporting optional celibacy for priests is available to sign and send to Bishop Gregory at Corpus’ Web site and has been distributed by CTA and FutureChurch, as well as parish groups. Supporters of optional celibacy say they are raising the issue now because they are worried that the priest shortage is affecting the life of the church. "The urgency is in the vanishing Eucharist," said Corpus’ Stu O’Brien.

"We’re trying to get to discussion on the topic," said Ahlhauser.

Bishop Gregory responded to the Milwaukee letter in an August 22 interview with the St. Paul, Minnesota Pioneer Press. Recent tensions in the church have "given some focus to questions simmering for a long time about church life," he said.

"We are in the long haul for a lot of honest, open, heart-to-heart conversation . . . . The church is a family of faith, and every family has moments when it talks very seriously among itself about issues."

While Gregory said such conversations are healthy, "We do not proclaim doctrine by polling the faithful."

This latest push in favor of optional celibacy faces its share of opposition. "It is part of the American fix-it mentality that the removal of the obligation of celibacy will make the priesthood more marketable and perhaps from certain points of view it might," writes Madison, Wisconsin Bishop Robert Morlino in a column to be published in this week’s diocesan newspaper, the Associated Press reports. "But it also is a step back from total reliance on Jesus Christ in this matter. Jesus Christ alone gives the grace of celibacy."

Since the Milwaukee letter was sent out on August 16 with 163 signatures, 6 more priests have added their names.

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