Article on Celibacy in the Catholic Church from the Chicago Tribune..

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> For priests, celibacy still a vow -- and a gift

> In permissive times, tradition even more vital, clergy say

>

> By Steve Kloehn

> Tribune Religion Writer

> February 6, 2000

>

> On a Lake County campus this winter, a small group of first-year students

> is beginning a weekly seminar about the nature of their sexuality. Over

> the next three years, they will study the psychology and physiology of

> sexuality, traditions for healthy living, guidelines for personal

> relationships and professional ethics surrounding sexuality.

>

> They will talk about the subject with mentors and in small groups, and

> their progress will be monitored closely.

>

> And when it is all done, the men who have completed this rigorous course

> of study -- Catholic seminarians at St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein --

> will vow not to have sex for the rest of their lives.

>

> At a time when popular culture is inundated with sexual enticements, and

> even Catholics are divided over the value of mandatory celibacy for

> priests, the church is pouring unprecedented energy into preparing its

> seminarians for a life without sex.

>

> It is a campaign that has gone largely unnoticed outside the priesthood.

> But after a controversial newspaper series published last week in the

> Kansas City Star asserting that Catholic priests contract the AIDS virus

> at a far greater rate than the general public, the sex lives of priests

> have again become a hot topic for discussion on talk shows, on the

> Internet and in the church itself.

>

> Celibacy is not just a challenge, local priests insist, but a gift. They

> say celibacy allows them to have open and transparent relations with many

> people at once, while giving themselves entirely to Jesus Christ.

>

> And the more peculiar that practice looks to the rest of society, the more

> important it is for the Catholic Church to prove that sex need not be the

> center of human existence, church leaders say -- even as they acknowledge

> that celibacy will never be lived perfectly by all priests.

>

> "There is an assumption out there that you have to have sex to be an

> adult, that if you don't have sex, there's something wrong with you," said

> Cardinal Francis George in an interview last week. "In this day the

> witness of celibacy, because the culture is so eroticized, is perhaps more

> important than ever."

>

> Perhaps because that stance contrasts so starkly with cultural

> expectations, the failure of some priests to live up to their vows of

> celibacy continues to make news.

>

> The Kansas City Star series used activists' estimates, death certificates

> and written questionnaires to draw the conclusion that priests are four

> times as likely to contract HIV/AIDS as the general U.S. population.

>

> Based on 800 responses gathered from a survey offered to 3,000 priests,

> the series also suggested that the priesthood is disproportionately

> homosexual and more sexually active than is usually admitted. Parts of

> those findings were reprinted in newspapers around the country, including

> the Tribune.

>

> But the series has come in for serious criticism in recent days, not only

> from priests and church officials who say that the findings do not match

> their experience, but also from a media watchdog group (the Center for

> Media and Public Affairs, in Washington, D.C.) that analyzed the

> statistical data used in the stories, and even a Chicago clinician cited

> in the stories.

>

> John Keenan, a psychologist and priest who runs a multipurpose clinic for

> priests, monks and nuns named Trinity House, called the newspaper's

> findings "ridiculous."

>

> "To come out with a statement about Roman Catholic clergy having a four

> times greater rate of HIV/AIDS is absurd . . . and I say that as a

> statistician," Keenan said last week. Contrary to fears in the late '80s,

> the incidence of AIDS among priests appears to have declined over the last

> decade, he said.

>

> Keenan has counseled priests with AIDS off and on for more than 15 years.

> He acknowledges that priests are not always faithful to the vow of

> celibacy. But he said that the failings are not particular to celibacy,

> but a risk in any lifetime commitment.

>

> "Everything you can say about celibates you can say about married people,"

> he said.

>

> Celibacy has been a part of church tradition since its inception. In his

> writings, St. Paul called on those who were able to give up earthly

> attachments, including family and marriage.

>

> By the 4th Century A.D., when persecution of Christians ended and an

> official hierarchy of churches emerged, some began adopting codes of

> celibacy for clergy. Other church leaders fought mandatory celibacy,

> especially for those who would have to leave a wife and family to become

> celibate.

>

> Prompted in part by the example of monastic life and in part by fears of

> distributing church property through inheritance, the medieval church

> moved closer to a consistent standard of celibacy for clergy. Pope Gregory

> VII is generally credited with making the discipline universal and

> mandatory for priests in the western church in the 11th Century.

>

> While that did not change officially in the 900 years that followed,

> cultural expectations of sex and commitment did. At no time was the

> tension more apparent than in the late 1960s, when the sexual revolution

> caused clergy already unsettled by fundamental changes within the church

> to question the very basis of their vocation.

>

> The departure of droves of priests in the 1970s, many of whom left the

> active priesthood to marry, was followed by a series of sexual abuse

> scandals in the 1980s that some activists blamed on celibacy.

>

> The church, meanwhile, decided that drastic changes were needed in the way

> seminarians were recruited and taught about celibacy.

>

> At St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, the results include stringent

> screening and monitoring of seminarians, practical guidance for living a

> celibate life, and theological instruction that integrates celibacy with

> prayer and chaste love for all people as elements of a life devoted to

> God.

>

> Before a seminarian is admitted, he undergoes psychological testing and

> background checks to ascertain, among other things, his sexual history and

> orientation. While homosexual orientation alone is not a reason to deny

> admittance, officials say, understanding one's own sexuality is important

> to an honest commitment to celibacy.

>

> In addition, applicants are required to have lived chastely -- that is,

> with no sex outside marriage -- for at least two years before admission. A

> student handbook says that any involvement in sexual activity or

> frequenting of singles or gay bars during the seminary years could lead to

> dismissal.

>

> But seminary officials say that the key to celibacy is not rules but a

> life of faith.

>

> "It's still primarily grounded in spirituality and theology," said Rev.

> John Canary, rector of the seminary. "That's the only way it makes sense

> and can remain healthy."

>

> Officials say the most important element of instruction on celibacy,

> before and after ordination, is one-on-one spiritual direction. Spiritual

> directors, often other priests, are trained to help both clergy and

> laypeople talk about their faith and their lives. They are assigned to all

> seminarians, and the Archdiocese of Chicago recommends that its priests

> also meet regularly with spiritual directors.

>

> In 1993 the archdiocese also began putting together celibacy discussion

> groups for priests, according to Rev. Daniel Coughlin, one of two vicars

> for priests in the archdiocese.

>

> If the archdiocese does find evidence that a priest has broken the vow of

> celibacy in a legal and consensual act of sex, Coughlin said, the first

> step is to sit down and talk to the priest.

>

> "We need to know, are there commitments to another person? If some of it

> is that the priest is in a bad environment, we'd get him out of that. If

> he needed treatment (for a sexual disorder), we'd get him treatment,"

> Coughlin said.

>

> Although the church teaches that homosexual acts are "objectively

> disordered," Coughlin said that is not the principal concern of his

> office.

>

> "We're aiming at celibacy, whether you're heterosexual or homosexual," he

> said.

>

> Preliminary results from a survey conducted by the Center for Applied

> Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University seem to indicate that

> most Chicago priests are comfortable with celibacy.

>

> The survey, set for release in May, asked 218 questions about priestly

> life, three of which dealt directly with celibacy. Rev. Louis Cameli,

> director of formation for priests in the archdiocese, said that 54 percent

> of the 900-plus diocesan priests responded.

>

> "The priests generally responded that they had the skills to live this out

> in a way that was life-giving, that they didn't turn into cranky old

> bachelors," Cameli said. "But they also wanted a deeper understanding of

> the rationale" behind celibacy.

>

> At Mundelein, that conversation continues.

>

> "I wouldn't say that I worry about it, but it is an issue that we talk

> about openly and frankly," said Jeffrey Njus, a first-year student. "I

> know I can (live celibately) because I'm doing it now. . . . But being

> celibate is not something I can do by myself."

>

> Mark Greschel, 43, felt a call to the Catholic priesthood but began

> studying to be a Lutheran pastor instead because he wanted to keep open

> the option of marriage and family. But after taking a break from his

> training, he converted to Catholicism and is now a third-year seminarian

> at Mundelein.

>

> "I realized I was being celibate and I was happy. I have friends who love

> me and who I love," he said. "And at the core of our chastity is a very,

> very real relationship with the living Christ."