Priests in most Western Catholic churches have to swear an oath of celibacy, which was more about making it easy to deal with church property than holiness, she said.
“For centuries its failure has been hidden. Now it is very public.”
She has spoken out on the topic before, writing in 2018 the defence for celibacy – it gave a priest more time for his ministry – was idealistic.
“This works for some priests, but for many others, the gap means loneliness, alcoholism, depression and guilt-ridden sexual behaviour.”
2019-10-11