An Answer to Susan Jacoby on Celibacy
 
In an article published in the PDN on May 16, Susan Jacoby asks: “Should the Catholic priesthood be restricted to single, celibate men? Do clergy restrictions based on gender, marital status or sexual orientation make sense these days?” The answer to these two questions starts with the reason why the Catholic Church exists: to announce that the end times have begun. Through his death and resurrection Jesus Christ has been exalted at the right hand of the Father in order to send to those believe the gift of his Spirit.
 
In order to believe this you need faith. If you have no faith, this announcement is not going to make much sense. Therefore, those who are sent to make this announcement have to give signs that the end time - when there will be no more marrying and giving in marriage - has already broken into history (Cf. Mt 22: 23-33). Marriage and having a family is for this age. In the age to come, there will no longer be marriage. One of those possible signs is celibacy for the sake of the kingdom (Cf. 1 Corinthians 7: 25-31).
 
We live in an age in which celibacy is often thought of as Ms. Jacoby thinks – the repression of sexual desires. She correctly considers the repression of sexual desires unhealthy, for to do so leads to one of two possibilities. Either one ends up rigid and unable to relate in a warn way with other human beings, or one lives a double life, very unrigidly, like “Father Oprah” (a fact that Ms. Jacoby seems to miss). Both are very immature ways of living that lead to deep unhappiness. Though they manifest themselves differently, both have the same root: the failure to integrate properly one’s sexual drives into the order of persons. Sex is not a way to get something from others (sexual gratification) as in “recreational sex.” It is a way to give something (love in the service of life) to another person within the life-time commitment of marriage.
 
In these end times, the body has a nuptial meaning. It says that our destiny is to give ourselves to others in a love which is open to life. The virtue that rectifies the sexual appetites is called chastity. It is what makes celibacy for the sake of the kingdom possible. It also is what makes sex in marriage a warm, human experience because it allows us to put the good of the person at the center of the relationship, rather than self-gratification. It makes no sense to think that sexual orientation (to the preferred object of one’s self-gratification) is a matter of personal preference when in such a schema the other person disappears to be replaced by the preferred object of self-gratification.
 
Underlying Ms. Jacoby critique is a separation of the person from the body. The body has no role in her definition of a person. In her worldview, persons are asexual beings some of whom happen by chance to dwell in male bodies while others happen to dwell in female bodies. Hence they are interchangeable in social roles. This view makes no sense to the Catholic Church who sees the body as the person. For her, persons do not have bodies; they are bodies. Persons cannot be disembodied.
 
Moreover, the Catholic Church has a sacramental view of reality. The physical bespeaks spiritual realities and makes them present. In the end times, it makes no sense to speak of women priests. Jesus Christ is the bridegroom who comes to claim his bride, the Church in the celebration of the marriage feast of the Lamb, the Eucharist. In her body-person, a woman is the sign of the bride, the Church. Only a man can be sign of the Bridegroom.
 
To move from believing in God to the total loss of transcendental meaning in one’s life that atheism implies is a wrenching experience. Courage, Susan, God loves you.