Priests’ mistresses petition for end to celibacy

(RNS) Some 40 Italian women who claim to have had relationships with Roman Catholic priests have sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI seeking an end to priestly celibacy. The letter, posted on the website of the Times of London newspaper on Friday (May 28), says celibacy “has nothing to do either with the Scripture […]

(RNS) Some 40 Italian women who claim to have had relationships with Roman Catholic priests have sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI seeking an end to priestly celibacy.

The letter, posted on the website of the Times of London newspaper on Friday (May 28), says celibacy “has nothing to do either with the Scripture in general … or with Jesus, who never spoke about it.”

The women are accustomed to living in anonymity, the letter said, but their voices “can no longer continue to be ignored.” A priest is a “painfully lonely being” who needs to fully experience love without “suffering the consequences of obligatory celibacy.”


The 1,578-word letter also cites passages from the German book “Kleriker: Psychogramm eines Ideals” by former Roman Catholic priest and theologian Eugen Drewermann. In the passage, Drewermann says that “the individual cleric looks like a bucket of water: it is necessary to fully empty its contents to fill it to the brim again with everything that seems desirable to ecclesiastical superiors.”

Fewer than one in three American Catholics believe mandatory celibacy for priests was a major factor in the sexual abuse crisis, according to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll. Twenty-eight percent said it was a minor factor, and 35 percent say it was not a factor at all, according to the poll.

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