• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Must Reads

Veteran priest is calling for the Catholic Church to abandon its ban on sex

Fr Brian D’Arcy, who has spent almost half a century in the Church, says leaders urgently need to consider making clerical celibacy optional, as well as ordaining married men and women.

Guest Contributor by Guest Contributor
2018-09-28 15:14
in Must Reads
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

A veteran priest is calling for the Catholic Church to abandon its ban on sex – because he believes celibacy can cause an unhealthy emotional life and spirituality.

Fr Brian D’Arcy, who has spent almost half a century in the Church, says leaders urgently need to consider making clerical celibacy optional, as well as ordaining married men and women.

The priest, who is 50 years ordained next year, added that Mass attendances in Ireland are falling and there is a lack of vocations to the priesthood.

He said he has always believed clergy should be allowed to get married.

The 73-year-old said: “I think compulsorily tying the gift of celibacy with the gift of priesthood is more codology than theology.

“They are two separate gifts – they are not the same gift.”

He claims compulsory celibacy is based on “an utterly inadequate theology of sexuality” and can lead to an unhealthy emotional life and spirituality.

RelatedPosts

Ironic: Council admits it ‘must try harder’ after misspelling ‘grammar’ on sign outside school

Callous thief stole homeless man’s guitar while he slept in shop doorway

Yob who told French traffic warden she was an ‘immigrant’ found guilty of hate crime

Jail for racist woman who threatened to take out two hand guns and shouted ‘kill all the Muslims!

But he says simply abolishing celibacy or ordaining women would not remedy the Church’s problems.

He added: “I think all of those things can be looked at, but the answer isn’t going to be found in any one of them alone.

“We have to look at how the Spirit is working in the Church and I think the Spirit is very apparent in the great lay committed people in the Church.”

Over 90 per cent of people attended Mass when Pope John Paul II visited Ireland in 1979. But this has fallen to 19 per cent in some urban areas today.

Fr D’Arcy said that figure could be as low as nine per cent if the older age group is excluded.

He said: “We have prayed for years, particularly in the western world, for an increase in vocations. We cannot say that God isn’t listening because we absolutely believe he is.

“But the vocations are not there, so maybe we are asking God for the wrong gift.

“If we can keep on doing the same thing then we are likely to get the same result; the fact that the result is neither helpful to the Church or priesthood is telling us that we better change our way of doing it.”

By Adela Whittingham and Sarah Mac Donald

Pic Credit – Stock Image

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

Parliamentary Sketch 22nd October – Wales tales never fails

Government to try delaying vote on inquiry into whether PM lied to Parliament

Being a mum ‘bad for a woman’s health’

Crossrail delayed again to end of 2021

Film Review: Lean on Pete

Covid: Ex-nurse ranted about ‘hanging doctors and nurses’ in protest speech – Twitter fought back

Labour receives donations from the “many not the few”

Couple marry 40 years after first meeting as kids on French exchange trip

Thérèse Coffey claimed £200,000 on expenses while cutting your benefits

London’s Biggest Residential Builds in 2018

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.