Oh Hail the Chief!

With a fantastic first interview!  Pope Francis threatens/promises to blow away centuries of sexual cobwebs from the Roman Catholic Church. 

Pope Francis said the Catholic Church must shake off an obsession with teachings on abortion, contraception and homosexuality or risk the collapse of its entire moral edifice, "like a house of cards". 

Thumbs up from the godless for Pope Francis. What about his own community??

 To me this is a statement of the bleeding obvious.  Sexual “obsession” is the appropriate word.  A pack of old, celibate men opining on these matters (when they forgive and transplant sexual offenders of the most pernicious kind) is such an ethical turn off.  Who outside the Church is not at the same time, appalled, amazed, amused and disgusted by the current rules and practices of the Church?  They are a godsend for atheists.  It is slightly scary that, paraphrasing the words of Richard Nixon, “What will we do now we might not have the Catholic Church to abuse?”

In an interview with an Italian Jesuit monthly, the Pope said the church had locked itself up in "small things, in small-minded rules".

Its priests should be more welcoming and not cold, dogmatic bureaucrats stuck in confessionals that sometimes resembled "torture chambers", he said.

FANTASTIC STUFF!  He makes people like Cardinal Pell look like the antediluvian, doddery anachronism he most surely is.

APPALLING STUFF! For the foresight of Pope Francis with his inclusion of the marginal and marginalization of the reactionaries threatens to make Catholicism Kosher again.  Already going gang busters in the developing world, Catholicism with a decent leader threatens to become popular and palatable in places where it is really struggling in the West.

The full interview can be viewed here: http://www.americamagazine.org/pope-interview

THE STEAK KNIVES!  But wait, there’s more.  Pope Francis appointed Italian Archbishop Pietro Parolin as his new Secretary of State. One of his first acts was to open the topic of priestly celibacy.  He has argued that church’s tradition of priestly celibacy was not dogma and was therefore open to discussion. In guarded tones he has opened the door. “The effort made by the church to institute ecclesial celibacy must be taken into consideration. One cannot simply say that it belongs to the past,” he said.

Why are we still talking about celibacy?

Voluntary celibacy is maligned fairly or unfairly.  And yet it is surprisingly common across a range of faiths and practices.  It is to be found in the Catholic, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist and other traditions.  Some of these requirements are temporary and some lifelong.  With the prohibition of pre marital sex which is very widespread there is an argument that every faith requires some degree of celibacy.

However, notwithstanding the many shapes and sizes of sexual restraint, the big Momma of the discussion is of course, the voluntary celibacy of the Catholic male priest.

Let us distinguish between celibacy and abstinence.  The former is usually a result of a vow and can be lifelong renunciation of marriage and sexual relations. Abstinence is thought of as a temporary lull in the proceedings such as the Orthodox Jewish prohibition on sex during menstruation.  In common parlance however, they are seen as identical. 

Celibacy is blamed as a cause of the sexual predation now emerging in the Church.  Whilst there is insufficient evidence to be conclusive, the logic goes like this.  Celibacy attracts those for whom married life is not attractive but want the prestige of having an excuse for not engaging in marriage and/or straight sex.  And even if you are attracted to the idea of heterosexual married life, abstinence and the strange obsession with it, might change one in ways that could lead to child abuse.  That is the logic.  The evidence from the John Jay Report seems to corroborate the logic but is not conclusive. 

But whatever the relationship between celibacy and abuse, voluntary celibacy seems to me to be weird and a deprivation of normalcy. 

Just wait for it.  There will be the inevitable counter revolution.  The habits of a millennium or more will die hard.  Will Pope Francis and his Secretary of State succeed in staunching the blood flowing from the Church’s sexual Achilles heel?  Or will the forces of reaction outlast and outplay the forces of reform?

What is your view?

Do you agree that Pope Francis’ interview was disastrous for atheism in the West?

Do you think it is too little too late?

How did he keep this reformist zeal so secret that he won the vote?

Where will the Church go on celibacy?

What is your view of celibacy?

Over to you.