I just wanted to take a moment before I begin my rant to thank God, not just for creating me and tapping me to do the work of the web apologist, but for introducing me to the fine website of Religion News Blog.  I am never out of rants where that site is concerned.  Whenever I have nothing to blog about, I just log on and browse the new articles, and I always find something that raises my ire or that I feel needs some space.

Tonight, it was this article that got me going.  I have no idea what I was really expecting.  The issue of priestly celibacy in the Catholic Church needs some serious reflection on the part of the Vatican.  Yet they are afraid to break with their precious traditions for the sake of a diplomatic solution to a very serious problem.  Excommunicated Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo is only the tip of the iceberg–an iceberg that has caused more priests to leave the Catholic Church than any other issue.  I have no statistics to back that up; I really am just guessing on that last point.

I understand that the primary reasoning for the Vatican’s celibacy requirement comes from 1 Corinthians 7:1, 8, 17, 20:

Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry. . . .  [T]o the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. . . . [E]ach one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches.  Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him.

This isn’t bad advice.  The apostle Paul generally gives very good advice.  The whole of this chapter is one of the best chapters for new Christians to read, as it gives tremendous insight into to the life that one now must lead once called by God to be a Christian.  It also shows the new way in which one must relate to the non-Christians in life; especially close ones, such as parents or spouses.

I can even understand why the Catholic Church uses passages like this in favor of a celibate preisthood.  But a celibate preisthood is not biblical.  I have nothing specific on it at this site, at least not yet.  Most of my past Roman Catholic blog posts can be read here.  What I do fail to understand is why the Vatican won’t ease their restrictions on this issue when there are clearly many Catholics–both lay and clergy–in favor of it.

It just seems like the right thing to do.