Priestly Celibacy

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31001, 5 March 1966, Page 4

Priestly Celibacy

Priestly Celibacy and Maturity. By the Rev. D. P. O’Neil. Sheed and Ward, New York. 177 pp.

As a general statement, this might stand. Most people marry, some don’t. Of those who don’t a good number deliberately undertake a celibate existence in the service of the Christian religion. The majority of these would be Roman Catholics. A recent estimate set the number of priests alone at 420.000.

In a modern world constantly subjected to sociological analysis the phenomenon of priestly celibacy could scarcely be overlooked. For-

tunately, it has fallen into capable hands.

Father D. P. O’Niel has confined his analysis to the specific relationship of celibacy to the secular priest i.e. the priest not a member of a religious order, usually engaged in parish work, under the immediate direction of a Bishop. He deals frankly and calmly with the historical, theological, and psychological implications of celibacy. His stance is positive but he does not hesitate to suggest possible deficiencies in seminary training and the legal framework of priestly celibacy. He is particularly concerned lest an inferior concept of this state of life retard the development of the person embracing it. Reasonably, he insists that the sacrifice reserves one aspect of love only to pour forth another kind of love upon the people the priest is serving. This love should enrich him personally so that he becomes more rather than less a man with the passage of the years. Hence his insistence on the interdependence of celibacy and maturity. It is a process of growth. One can happily conclude that this sophisticated study presented by a New Zealand priest is a witness in Itself to the maturity of the priesthood in this country. If there must be one regret, it would be the impression that the psychology sections do not translate into the layman’s Idiom as smoothly as do the theological sections.

Although this book would seem to be the first rather than the last word on this significant facet of Christian life and service, it can scarcely be regarded as less than a constructive and penetrating beginning.