IN A WEEK when the Curia's attention is keenly focused both on the Pope's controversial visit to France and on his state of health while on that visit it would be stretching things to suggest that the Holy See has been rocked by the revelations that the runaway Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, Dr Roderick Wright, has not only left the church for a woman, Ms Kathleen Macphee, but also had a 15-year-old son from a relationship with Ms Joanna Whibley.

Distressed though senior Curia members may be by the Bishop Wright case, they all have to ruefully con cede a sense of deja vu. Bishops or priests in trouble because they have failed to obey the vow of chastity are nothing new.

Although celibacy is a matter of church discipline rather than doctrine - in other words it pertains to church law and not to divine law - such a turnaround is practically impossible given the repeated affirmations of priestly celibacy by Pope John Paul II.

Curia sources argue that even if in the unlikely event that the next pope were to prove radically different in his theological viewpoint - from Pope John Paul II, be would still find it impossible to reverse such fervently sustained teaching by his predecessor.

Speaking to members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith last November, the Pope condemned those theologians who had dared criticise two of his most important encyclicals, Veritatis Splendor of 1993 and Evangelium Vitae of last year.

"It seems necessary," he said, "to recover the authentic concept of authority in the church ... Theology can never be reduced to the private reflections of a theologian or a group of theologians.

The Pope's fervent defence of celibacy has not, however, prevented the church from being plagued by the never-ending debate provoked by priests who "defect" because of involvement with a woman. Vocatio, an Italian organisation for such priests, estimates that in the last 20 years, 120,000 priests worldwide have renounced their vows, leaving the church because they wanted to marry.

Mr Lorenzo Maestri, a spokesman for Vocatio, claims the "fall-out" rate is highest in Latin America, followed by North America and then Europe. He also claims that many priests who choose to remain in the church lead a double life, maintaining a relationship with a women while preaching chastity. Twenty per cent of North American priests have a stable but secret relationship with a woman, while 50 per cent get involved in occasional "sexual skirmishes", Mr Maestri claims.