Austria, as any other country, has its share of very conservative people. [And I mean very conservative.] One of them is Andreas Khol, who sees himself (I think) as the defender of Austria’s Catholic Morale(tm). He was one of the people, who wanted to have god in the European Constitution. [Together with Christoph Schönborn, who I mentioned here already.]

So imagine my surprise when I heard that he, Herbert Kohlmaier [German link] and Erhard Busek (amongst others) started a petition [German link] in Austria to get rid of the celibacy in the catholic church and therefore increase the number of guys wanting to become priests. In fact, that’s not all they want:

Sie [Die Initiative] hält zu diesem Zweck insbesondere folgende Schritte für notwendig:

1. Die wegen einer Eheschließung aus dem Amt entfernten Priester möglichst bald zu reaktivieren
2. den Pflichtzölibat der Priester abzuschaffen,
3. die Weihe von Frauen zu Diakoninnen zu ermöglichen sowie
4. vorzusehen, dass die Bischöfe geeignete Personen („viri probati“ – besonders Diakone, aber auch andere) durch Weihe und Beauftragung zur Durchführung sakramentaler Handlungen (Leitung der Eucharistiefeier, Spenden der Krankensalbung usw.) ermächtigen.

Translation:

To this purpose, [the petition] thinks the following steps necessary:

1. to reactivate the priests who have been removed from their positions because of their marriage
2. to get rid of the compulsory celibacy
3. to enable the consecration of women to deaconesses
4. to allow that bishops may authorise suitable persons (“viri probati” – especially deacons, but also others) through consecration and assignement to execute sacred acts (leading of eucharist ceremony, administering of extreme unction etc.)

Quite an agenda, especially considering the libertine that is the pope. I don’t know if the petition will help at all, but that’s not the thing I wanted to write about.

I saw this programme about Khol’s plans on TV and I tell you, it was great. Here’s a quick run-down.

It starts out with a brief summary of the petition. Then we see an older man preparing to hold a mass in an old people’s home. He’s been doing it for 10 years, although he’s been suspended from priesthood since 1975 because he got married. He’s substituting for a sick “official priest”.

Remember the old people’s home, it’s going to be important!

Interview with Khol and Kohlmaier. Kholmaier says, “Priests not being allowed to have kids is saying no to life. There’s no better way to say yes to life than with kids.”

So, it’s actually just applying the “Every Sperm Is Sacred” principle to priests. And it is a truth universally acknowledged that everybody must want to have kids.

Cut into a seminary. Young seminarist is asked whether he’d agree with having married priests. He says, “For me, this would be a catastrophe. (…) The church would become unfertile.”

*rofl* Actually, wouldn’t the opposite be the case? The church finally becoming fertile, growing their own hordes of priests etc etc?

Seminary teacher is being interviewed, “Celibacy is underestimated as a life style. It’s definitely the case that it has no social prestige.”

And why should it be the case? First, it’s unnatural, humans are sexual beings. Second, don’t you have enough social prestige already by being a priest? And thirdly, just because it would be possible to get married wouldn’t mean that you’d have to. If you choose to be celibate, I won’t judge you. I just don’t think it’s fair for it to be a prerequisite. [But then again, when was the last time that the catholic church was actually fair?]

In the last 20 years, the number of priests has dropped 17%.

And you still want to tell me that the church doesn’t have to change? Go ahead and extinct yourself. That’s what happens to animals which can’t adapt fast enough to changing surroundings.

Another young (and actually cute) seminarist is being asked whether he thinks that he will be lonely some day. “No. I have a dog. *laughs* (…) I, like any other human, can not say whether my life concept will succeed.”

Judging by this answer, I think that this is a fairly intelligent Human being. I would have liked to hear him answer the question whether he would like to have the right to get married and still be a priest. Unfortunately, either he wasn’t asked or it got cut.

Another older seminarist, “The highest divorce rate is amongst protestant priests, so maybe marriage isn’t the biggest success in families. I’m skeptical whether allowing priests to marry will solve all problems.”

Of course it won’t solve all problems. There is still the fact that the politics of the church are outdated, as are their values because there’s been changes in the culture and the church refuses to adapt [just to be clear, I’m talking about the situation in Austria here, though I don’t think that’s the only place where this occurs]. There is still the fact that the heads of the whole church [meaning not only the pope] care more about power than the actual message they should be sending.
But this isn’t supposed to be a solution of all the problems the catholic church has – it’s the proposed solution to the evident lack of priests in Austria.
And let’s not even talk about that sidestab at the protestants.

Cute seminarist, “I was surprised about Andreas Khol supporting this petition. Maybe it’s the wisdom of old age.”

I actually like this guy. He’s got humour. And apparently, he accepts that his life choices are not the only valuable ones – and that they might change.

Back to Kohlmaier, “The celibacy stopped me from thinking about becoming a priest. I felt that I would really liked to do it. But I’m such a happy father and grandfather today and I don’t think that a religious denomination should be allowed to hinder me in that.”

Good point.

Back in the old people’s home. Says the ex-priest, “We don’t do this to annoy the bishop, we do it because the people need it.”

Yeah and if the church really had the best interest of their communities at heart, they’d finally accept this – accept that maybe what they think is the right think might not apply to everybody. There’s a lack of priests, so if you want to give all people the possibility to believe what you believe and act on that believe, get off your high horses!

Interview with the mass attending seniors.

And that’s the best part of this whole thing. The seniors, who are so often perceived as the hindrance when it comes to changes in whatever organisation, have the best arguments on why the whole celibacy thing is ridiculous.

Interviewer: “Does it make a difference whether a priest is married or not?”
Senior #1: “Sure! Because if he isn’t, he has illegitimate children. If he is, the children are legitimate.”

*rofl*

Senior #2: “No, this can not make a difference because I go to mass because of god, not because of the priest. You really should know that.”

I love that this is probably the best argument I’ve ever heard about this, spoken with simplicity and combined with a reprimand for the interviewer. I want to hug that lady.

Interviewer: “Did you know that the priest was married?”
Senior #3: “No.”
Senior #4: “What do you care about it?”
Interviewer to Senior #3: “What do you think about him being married?”
Senior #3: “I don’t care.”
Senior #4: “A church should be a church of love and not a church of scheming. Remember that!”

Another very good argument: That is Christ’s message in its basic form. But it also shows to what the church is being reduced to: powerplay and intrigue. [Plus another reprimand for the interviewer.]

Let me tell you a small story here, just to highlight the intrigue point. My aunt was catholic. After spending a long time being catholic by denomination only, she decided to officially leave the church. Last year, she got a job in a children’s advisory center. A catholic advisory center. Not 24 hours passed after she was officially announced before the advisory center got an (anonymous) call by someone who just wanted to make sure that the center knew that my aunt wasn’t catholic. *shakes head*

It would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic. It would be funny if it didn’t actually threat my aunt’s job [she kept it in the end. But there were discussions…].

But that’s a problem that will not be solved by married priests.

Anyway, the programme ended here, wishing Kohl et al. good luck with this endeavour but doubting if it would achieve anything.

I think I’ll end my post with the same thought.