Allowing priests to marry would ensure church future

A century of living a faithful, practicing Catholic life of private piety and public witness to her faith merits the writer of this letter the unqualified right to the assumption of good intentions. I stand in awe and respect for her Christian and Catholic life and am confident that her efforts will stand in good stead before God in any future judgment. But I respectfully suggest that her conclusion isn't supported by the evidence.



Putting to the side all the religious justifications and explanations in favor of a celibate clergy, there is a simple error in fact in her argument that she overlooks. It's simply this: If celibacy is what's causing the shortage of clergy in our Roman Church, to what would she ascribe the same deficiencies in Protestant Churches like the Anglicans and Lutherans? Their numbers have dropped throughout the 1st World right along with what we've experienced with Catholic priests and clerics over the past 50 years. I am afraid to say it, but just allowing our priests to marry would not result in a sustained wave of candidates into the seminaries of Europe or North America. If it did, then it would also be happening already where celibacy has not been a requirement.

Agree? Disagree? What say you, eh?



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