{"id":43368,"date":"2013-02-27T13:52:09","date_gmt":"2013-02-27T13:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/?p=43368"},"modified":"2017-03-02T21:03:14","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T21:03:14","slug":"priestly-celibacy-and-earthbound-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2013\/02\/27\/priestly-celibacy-and-earthbound-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Priestly Celibacy and Earthbound Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Father Emil Kapaun is going to receive a posthumous Medal of Honor<\/a><\/strong>, and that\u2019s a very good thing. His cause for sainthood has been opened, as well, and that\u2019s a good thing, too, for all of us and for the Catholic priesthood<\/a>, which being pelted and sometimes willfully misunderstood<\/a>, by many, especially those who cannot see a priest without thinking, \u201cthat<\/em> person is not having sex. How weird, and unhealthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is great power in celibacy, which is why Taoists and Buddhists practice it to varying degrees. Not only religious people but artists also subsume co-creative sexual energies in order to use them elsewhere. Actor Al Pacino famously never had sex while he was filming a movie; he saved that energy for creation. <\/p>\n

If you ask them, most celibate priests and nuns<\/strong> will tell you that yes, celibacy is a challenging discipline, but it is also a freeing one, in that it allows the love one would bestow upon one\u2019s spouse and children to be used for many, in many ways. Spiritual motherhood, fatherhood, brotherhood extended to many. It\u2019s no accident that Mother Teresa was a celibate, no accident that monastics are celibate; you can\u2019t do their work, be it tending to abandoned people in the slums or praying six-to-eight hours a day and still give your family everything you ought.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t do the work such religious do, or the work Father Damien and Brother Joseph<\/a> of Molokai did \u2014 to the extend and completeness that they did it \u2014 if one is married and involved with a family, and trying to get by in the world, not unless you bring your family completely into the work.<\/p>\n

Marriage is an office and a vocation<\/a><\/strong>, just like the priesthood and the religious life, and where you place your heart and make your vow gets (and deserves) the best of your love and your energy \u2014 most particularly the energy of co-creation.<\/p>\n

But most people don\u2019t really want to think about that; it\u2019s easier to be earthbound.<\/p>\n

Jesuit Father James Martin<\/strong> takes issue with Frank Bruni\u2019s extremely earthbound understanding of celibacy<\/a>. After linking to it on Facebook, Martin linked to a very good defense of celibacy<\/a> he wrote in 2010. <\/p>\n

Read them both. I think Bruni\u2019s biggest error is in equating sex with sex. People who prey on others sexually are all about sex as power. <\/p>\n

By the way, no one ever makes on Buddhist monks and nuns or harangues the Dalai Lama about celibacy. I\u2019m living proof that sexually active hetero men can still be predators of children.<\/p>\n

But I must say, I do love my husband\u2019s response<\/strong> to a woman who was carrying on to him about how celibacy was the whole cause and catalyst for our terrible scandals. He asked her, \u201chave you had periods of your life when you\u2019ve been celibate?\u201d <\/p>\n

She said, \u201cof course!\u201d <\/p>\n

He then said, \u201cand during those periods, did you feel like you wanted to have sex with kids?\u201d <\/p>\n

She got the point.<\/p>\n

Today, as we keep an odd sort of joyful living vigil<\/a> over the papacy of Benedict XVI,<\/a> it\u2019s a good time to pray to understand more completely the \u201cjoy of Christian life\u201d<\/a> in all of the ways it is undertaken, and to ask for wisdom in understanding all of those ways, and all of our Offices.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss Rocco Palmo on the pope\u2019s last audience<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Father Emil Kapaun is going to receive a posthumous Medal of Honor, and that\u2019s a very good thing. His cause for sainthood has been opened, as well, and that\u2019s a good thing, too, for all of us and for the Catholic priesthood, which being pelted and sometimes willfully misunderstood, by many, especially those who cannot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[4832,516,540],"class_list":["post-43368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-vocations","tag-celibacy","tag-priests","tag-sex"],"yoast_head":"\nPriestly Celibacy and Earthbound Thinking<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Father Emil Kapaun is going to receive a posthumous Medal of Honor, and that's a very good thing. 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