Celibacy hurts church, priest’s book argues

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Most priests were not given the gift of celibacy and forcing sexual abstinence on them can be a soul-shrinking burden that drains clerics of passion, endangers children and leads men away from the priesthood, a prominent author says in his new book. In a provocative new book, “Freeing Celibacy,” Donald Cozzens calls for an end to the almost 900-year-old Catholic practice staunchly defended by the Vatican.

Mandatory celibacy is breaking down as priests around the world defy the rule and more church members support the right of priests to marry, according to Cozzens, a writer in residence at John Carroll University in Cleveland who also served as a vicar for clergy of the Diocese of Cleveland. “Mandated celibacy is … an unnecessary restriction for thousands of priests and a source of suffering for the church itself,” Cozzens writes. “The time is right. Catholics everywhere await the freeing of celibacy.”  (TAB)