Ask a Catholic

[Randy Carson]

Ok, that was very in depth. Thanks.


I didn't mean it was contradicting the scripture, but thanks for clarifying that.

The problems I see with celibacy:

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~it is applied to people who are supposed to be an authority in terms of marriage and family.

It seems to me that priests aren't qualified to speak as an authority on people's personal lives if they haven't got the experience needed to give advice.

I know you will say that they derive what they teach from the bible-fair enough. But there are still matters which aren't addressed in the bible, as they became problematic with changes in society. I don't think that what applied to Bronze Age Jews can be applied to today's families and marriages.

For instance, there's a lot about striking your son with a rod. Metaphorical? I'd believe it, if it wasn't mentioned so many times.

I think there are a lot of issues married couples and parents might have that priests can't comment on.

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~it's unhealthy

I am certainly not denying there are people who would gladly be celibate and feel no ill effects of it.  But overall, to many it may be damaging.

Those who abstain (wilfully,  might I add) from sex have a death rate twice as high as those who don't. Having sex reduces risk if heart disease,  depression and improves the immune system.

Repression of sexual urges, even wilful, leads to higher risk of aggression and crime. There is a link between it and insensitivity.

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~it attracts the wrong kind of people

To a sexually repressed individual, celibacy appears tempting. Many who become priests are already involuntarily sexually repressed. This may lead to incidents such as sexual harassment or even child abuse in the case of sexually repressed pedophiles. Of course this in no way applies to all celibate priests, but it is an issue.


That's all I can think of right now, off the top of my head.

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You can add that frequent ejaculation (three to five times a week) reduces the risk of prostate cancer by one third.  That's not insignificant. http://www.menshealth.com/sex-women/mast...-every-day  Why would a benevolent god encourages behavior that puts a man's health at risk?

I find it particularly interesting because it is such an about face from the OT which strongly encourages sex and being fruitful and multiplying.

Jenny, the Catholic Church has been around for 2,000 years. Today, there are 1.2 billion of us. We've been fruitful and we've multiplied. I don't think having a few celibate priests sitting on the sidelines has caused us to miss our quotas.

As for your first point, some of the guys here may be troubled to read this from WebMD:

WebMD News Archive

Jan. 27, 2009 -- Frequent masturbation in young men is linked to higher risk of early prostate cancer, but it lowers prostate cancer risk for men in their 50s, a study shows.

High levels of male sex hormones, or androgens, may increase a man's risk of prostate cancer. But different studies of this question, done in different ways, have reached different conclusions.