A Simple Fix To The Priest Problem.

I have accused Islam of making women slaves, because a husband can starve his wife if she refuses his advances. Or the family can kill her if she goes out without a male relative. Can you imagine as a female in Canada, having those rules imposed upon you?

In fairness, I now have to turn my viewfinder to Catholic Priests.

The Catholic faith does not allow Priests to marry, I have disagreed with this policy for over 30 years. It is my biggest problem with my faith. The Catholic Church is losing Priests, and no young people want to become Priests anymore. It used to be a joyous occasion if a son went into the Priesthood. Mom's used to encourage their sons to enter the Church. That day is gone, as it should be. Asking a man to deny all sexual contact with females, is wrong. Same with making Nuns take a vow of chastity, to serve God. You can serve God while married, and serve your parishioners better because you will understand their problems better.

How can a married couple having problems in their marriage, go to a Priest who has never been married or had children? He can't understand the issues at the most basic level because he has never been in any situation even close to marriage. They can read all the books they want, but until they have lived the life, they can only spout theories or refer to their parents marriage. It is not healthy to isolate our Priests and expect them to become saints, without sexual feelings.

One of my favorite Priests was re-assigned to a Church in north Edmonton by a Monseigneur who didn't like him. Actually, without him, I probably wouldn't have gotten married because my non-Catholic hubby didn't like any of the Priests, except for this smoking, drinking, Newfoundlander. Talking to the Priest after Church we found out he had no help in moving him to his new parish, so we told him we would help.

Saturday arrived, we pulled up with our truck, ready for a full day of moving the Priest to his new home. He had 4 boxes including his clothes. It took us one trip. I will never forget, leaving him, with his few belongings, in a strange place, where no one bothered to come to greet him. It was heartbreaking.

That Sunday we made a special trip to his new parish to listen to his Mass. He saw us in the back and thanked us for our support. You see Priests are people too. They have feelings, and suffer from anxiety when moving to a new "job" just like everyone does.

Just like Muslims who follow Islam need to get the radical elements under control, Catholics can not sweep bad behaviour under the rug either. Thankfully Catholics have matured from the crusader days, but they still need to change in one very important way...let their Priests and Nuns marry if they want to. Being Ukrainian, I remember their Priests being able to marry, none of them have been accused of abuse that I know of. Jewish rabbis, who can marry, seem to be abuse free as well. It seems to be a pattern.

If the Catholic Church wants to grow, they need to allow their Priests to marry. No young guy these days, is going to decide to give up marriage to follow God, and I don't think God expects that of them. Marriage for our Priests would be healthier than expecting them to forget they are males, same goes for the Nuns, expected to be married to God.

A simple fix to the Priest problem, let them marry!