"I've devoted my whole life to the church," began Pere Marchand, who came over for a drink last night. "I love the Catholic church. So I feel entitled to criticize her.
"You know in [a nearby village], there is a priest who lives with a woman. Openly. Everyone knows it. Of course, he took a vow...well, not really a vow, exactly, but in order to become a priest you have to agree that you will give up some things. And one of the things you agree to give up is a sexual life...a family life...a conjugal life. But he lives with a woman. They're very nice people.
"The church hierarchy found out about it. This is not the first time this has happened, of course. And the church has ways of dealing with these things. Usually, they just want to look the other way...and so they want the priest to tell the world that the woman is just a housekeeper...not a lover, or a wife. You know, too, that in the Catholic Church a priest has almost magical powers. He intercedes with God and is able to turn bread into the body of Christ. If the priest is sinful, he loses this ability. But even there, the church is remarkably adroit. A priest could, for example, confess his sins early on Sunday morning and be free from them by the time he performs the mass. But this priest didn't want to do anything like that. He said that he and the woman lived 'as man and wife,' even though, of course, they weren't married.
"I find it is ridiculous for the church to be worried about these things. In fact, this couple actually set a good example to the rest of the community...they were a loving couple. And he was doing his job. He was acting as an intermediary between the people and the church...which is to say, an intermediary between the people and God. That's what a priest is supposed to do. He's supposed to be a good shepherd. It's not the magic that makes him useful in fulfilling God's role for him...it's the feeling, the care, the attentiveness to his flock that really counts.
"The idea of celibacy is an old one. But for many centuries, bishops and priests were married, with families. Bishops had worldly power...and a lot of money too. Often, they left their posts to their sons.
"It was only in the 11th century that priests were required to be celibate. And this only happened because the church came to be dominated by people coming from the monastic orders. They had their own ideas about what the priesthood should be; naturally, they saw it as an extension of the lives they led in the monasteries. But those lives were cut off from the people - intentionally. Just the opposite of the priests' lives. A priest was meant to be from the people, of the people...and to live with the people - so he could help them. And he also needed to know how they lived...and, since marriage was a key part of everyday life, it didn't hurt that he had some experience of it himself.
"As I said, I've been a priest for the last 40 years...but I can see that Martin Luther had a point. The church itself represents, not just the principles of Jesus, but the temporal power of a large, worldly institution. It has accountants, lawyers, and investment managers. Of course, it has to have those things. But it is always in danger of losing sight of its real purpose."
Bill Bonner
The Daily Reckoning Australia
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About the Author
Best-selling investment author Bill Bonner is the founder and president of Agora Publishing, one of the world's most successful consumer newsletter companies. Owner of both Fleet Street Publications and MoneyWeek magazine in the UK, he is also author of the free daily e-mail The Daily Reckoning.
Comment by Dudded Catholic on 26 March 2008:
I'd have to agre with you Bill. The Cathoic church (in Australia) also seem to have high powered private property developers that plunder around from school to school, under the guise of holyer than thou, do-gooder family loving christians. Some seem to be pretty good a weasling their way in between parish priests and the parishioners and their children. It's pretty sad when the 'poor' local church attempts to fill the coffers by alienating its own school kids already undersized and under-resourced playgrounds so that some already wealthy property fat-cats, with the ear of the Archdioce, can line their pockets and destroy a school in the process.
Comment by kathy on 27 March 2008:
Pere seems to be a bit mistaken about the powers of the priest to convert bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, the priest when he is ordained is endowed with the power to offer the sacrifice and bring about the transsubstantiation but it does not depend upon his own holiness, he can still be in a state of mortal sin and the mass will be valid. The priest is only standing in for Christ it is Christ who supplies the 'magic' and is the high priest. the priest will answer for the state of his own soul as will we all but thank the Lord he did not leave the effectiveness of the sacraments to depend on the holiness or lack of up to the priest. And i object to the notion that any couple who are living together outside of marriage as giving a good example to others. Our children are living in times that promote free sexuality as a right (as long as they use protection) and that as long as they are not hurting others everything is ok. This is leading to promiscuity amongst very young people and older ones, who have very little if any self control and don't see any need for it. The abuses against women and children are increasing, pervertion is increasing and a relationship with God is compared to that of Santa. Every empire after its day of glory became so corrupt within itself and weakened by the people becoming selfish, shortsighted pleasure seekers doesn't any one see a correlation here?
On a final note the catholic church has a mission to teach the truth and provide the sacraments, no one can deny that at all times the church has had its Judases, even from the very begining one twelfth of the priests were murderers liars and thieves. But it also had Jesus and it seems to me when God gave his church to people to manage he knew how badly we would manage and abuse it but was prepared to sacrifice himself and others for it because it is still and always was a very real and valid way to find HIM if one actually wanted to.
Comment by Damo on 27 March 2008:
The catholics criticized by Pere Marchand ...a priest? giving story time on the daily reckoning???
MAGICAL POWERS - INDEED.