CELIBATES ON CELIBACY
Schenk, Christine
CELIBATES ON CELIBACY During the last half-year, two church renewal organizations. Call to Action and FutureChurch, have conducted anonymous surveys or priests in titty-three U.S. dioceses. Priests...
...Organizers are circulating petitions asking that discussion of mandatory celibacy and of women deacons be placed on the agenda...
...Priests over 71, retired, and religious-order priests also favored discussion by majorities of 61, 66, and 70 percent respectively...
...Priests aged 41 to 70 most strongly favored open discussion, with 74 percent replying affirmatively...
...Sixty-seven percent of respondents (2,389 of 3,846) said yes...
...A number were discouraged at the apparent inabilitv ot church leaders to make necessary changes so that Catholics could continue to have access to the Mass and the sacraments...
...Visit www.futurechurch.org for results and comments by diocese...
...More than 347 priest respondents made additional comments, ninny of which were poignant...
...Lav surveys in 1985 and 1993 also indicated support for ordaining women, at 50 and 64 percent respectively...
...Priests were asked: "Do you fa\ or an open discussion of the mandatory-celibacy rule for diocesan priests...
...CHRISTINE SCHENK Christine Schenk, CSJ, executive director of FutureChurch in Cleveland, Ohio...
...Surveys of the laity consistently support optional celibacy...
...An Oklahoma priest wrote: "Mow can our religious leaders prefer that thousands and millions of Catholics have no Sunday Eucharist than to have them attend a Eucharist celebrated by someone who shared his bed legally with a loving spouse...
...The surveys are one part of an international campaign to raise the issue of the priest shortage at the International Synod on the Eucharist which will be held ne\t year in Rome...
...American Catholics: Gender, Generation, and Com-mitment by Professor Hoge and William V. D'Antonio (Alta Mira Press, 2001), cites surveys conducted in 1987, 1993, and 1999 that reported lay support for a married priesthood at 63, 72, and 71 percent respectively...
...But among younger priests (ages 23 to 40), only 42 percent were in favor, while 54 percent were not...
...Survey results are consistent with a 2001 Lilly Endowment study by Catholic University professor Dean R. Hoge which found that 56 percent of all priests think celibacy should be a matter of personal choice...
...The survey response rate was 27 percent...
Vol. 131 • November 2004 • No. 20
