Madam, – I find myself in sharp disagreement with the opinion of Garry O’Sullivan (December 15th) regarding the Catholic Church and celibacy as well as with Betty Maher (December 17th).
The point about the readmission of Michael Moloney to the priesthood has nothing to do with the oft-repeated contention that the Church is somehow radically anti-female and fearful of female sexuality. On the contrary, far from being anti-female, the Catholic Church has a deep-rooted and centuries-long suspicion of male sexuality.
From its very inception the Church has been a thoroughgoing feminine institution where male sexuality has been sidelined. Consider firstly the foundation myth of the virgin birth – no room there for male sexuality! – and follow that with the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary with its consequent celibacy imposed on her husband Joseph. Surely these are clear indications of the Church institutionalising the primacy of the feminine.
We are then presented with a dreadfully kitsch, androgenous image of Jesus (not by any stretch a strong male role model) who, of course, is held to be also celibate. And so on right to the present day where men are accepted into the priesthood provided they are permanently sexually inactive. (The fact that married Anglican Ministers are being accepted into the Catholic Church is a matter of inter-church politics.)
Female sexuality, in contrast, has always been held in the very highest esteem and given a place of honour within the self-understanding, iconography and theology of the Church.
What is needed now, in today’s world, is not a downgrading of female sexuality but rather an upgrading of male sexuality in the Church. Most men don’t feel comfortable with an institution that has airbrushed their sexuality out of the picture and tried to devalue it as having no vital role to play in the history of its dealings with the world. They feel they have no vital stake in the Church.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons why men are never seen in such large numbers as women at church services and why so few men are applying for admission to the priesthood. – Yours, etc,