Bishop predicts Catholic Church will adopt voluntary celibacy

THE Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, has predicted the Catholic Church will introduce voluntary celibacy for its priests in the next century, adding that he found the arguments against women priests increasingly difficult to understand.

Celibacy was something which had grown out of the early church, and had served it very well, he said. However, recent scandals raised a question mark on the issue.

"By being celibate, we risk being isolated and being emotionally detached and less than fully in touch with marriage and the struggles of married people.

"Equally, being celibate has given many priests the opportunity to get close to a small number of families. And this has given me some sort of intimacy in my life.

"I have the feeling that we will come to the point of having some sort of voluntary celibacy. Ultimately we will come to that but I think that will be well into the next century."

His comments, are contained in a wide ranging interview in The Banner, a new quarterly publication in Clare, follow his support last summer for Bishop Brendan Comiskey's call for a debate on celibacy.

Dr Walsh was one of a number of bishops to receive a warning letter from the then Papal Nuncio, Dr Gerada, at the time.

Dr Walsh declined to add to his remarks when contacted by the Irish Times yesterday.

In his interview with the editor of The Banner, Mr Gerard Colleran, he said he took seriously his promise at ordination to be loyal to the Pope and to the teachings of the church.

"But I have grave difficulty with the idea that any subject is not open to discussion."

He said he would like to see much greater participation in decision making by women in the church.

"I find very often if I have a problem I want to discuss, I will go to a woman rather than a man. They give me a complementing insight."

On women priests, he said "I find it increasingly difficult to understand the arguments which we advance for the exclusion of women from the priesthood."

However, Dr Walsh stressed that he had to accept the teaching of the church on the issue.

"There is often a tension between official positions and the feelings I would have myself about that."

He said the church had not responded appropriately in the past to allegations of child sex abuse.

"It is fairly clear now that we did not understand it. We knew it was very wrong, but we did not know the addictive nature of it. What happened was the man was brought in and hauled over the coals and warned. And he would say, `Yes, I will never do that again'. There was always an instinct to protect your own."

He said he had some worries about mandatory reporting of allegations.

"One of the dangers is that people may be less likely to report. To some extent, on balance, bishops went for mandatory reporting to make it clear they were interested in rooting it out."

For a period after the scandals began to break, bishops might have over reacted, he said.