In the early 1970's there was a spike in the number of news stories detailing the defections of Roman Catholic priests. The press, ever anxious to remain at the shallow end of the reporting pool, focused on the desire to marry and to overlook the priests who did not leave. And it was in this mix that I conceived of writing duet articles -- side by side -- about those who had decided to leave and, equally important, those who decided to remain as unmarried priests or other monogamous clerics.
Finding priests who had quit was not hard though their reasonings were often more subtle than simply wanting to get married. But finding priests who stayed was harder. Why stay? "Jesus Christ!" one exploded at the other end of the phone, "you want me to talk about my faith!" And my question remained -- why DON'T you quit? Aren't you in the faith business? Shouldn't there be some coherent thought process behind that choice?
I guess this comes to mind because Alabama's legislators have just passed an anti-abortion bill and I keep wondering how it is that those who view abortion as murder or some such plan to care for the unwanted pregnancies and life-forms they claim to defend. Have they made a concomitant vow to adopt and raise such children in a healthy, secure setting? Will the Roman Catholic Church do likewise? Seriously ... if you want to ban abortions, what's the next step?
Finding priests who had quit was not hard though their reasonings were often more subtle than simply wanting to get married. But finding priests who stayed was harder. Why stay? "Jesus Christ!" one exploded at the other end of the phone, "you want me to talk about my faith!" And my question remained -- why DON'T you quit? Aren't you in the faith business? Shouldn't there be some coherent thought process behind that choice?
I guess this comes to mind because Alabama's legislators have just passed an anti-abortion bill and I keep wondering how it is that those who view abortion as murder or some such plan to care for the unwanted pregnancies and life-forms they claim to defend. Have they made a concomitant vow to adopt and raise such children in a healthy, secure setting? Will the Roman Catholic Church do likewise? Seriously ... if you want to ban abortions, what's the next step?
It's all joke. I can hear those guys from on the mat from here these days...I told ya, we'd need them.
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