Debate Over the Church and Celibacy

Frankly, I am not so much sick and tired as I am bored by articles (“Vow in Peril--the Church & Celibacy,” by Richard Rodriguez, Opinion, Sept. 2) that seem to feel sorry for us priests who willingly (repeat, willingly) vowed to forgo some of the pleasures of the flesh for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven!

The preposterous, undocumented rash judgment in the article--quoting A.W. Richard Sipe--that 50% of the priests lead double lives and cheat on their vows is a pernicious, vicious lie.

I have been a Catholic priest for 37 years and after 37 years of hearing other priests’ confessions, it is my experience that Sipe’s claim is a monstrous, scandalous lie.

Is it possible for a pagan world to conceive that a balanced, normal man or woman might fall so completely and exclusively in love with God as to joyfully “offer up” some of the legitimate pleasures of this world in exchange for life everlasting?

FATHER MAURICE CHASE

Chaplain, Notre Dame Academy

Los Angeles