Give Catholics a greater choice

I REFER to Claire O’Sullivan’s article (Church will not take bishop’s celibacy remarks too kindly, Sept 14) which refers to retired Bishop Dr Edward Daly’s questioning of the need for the continuation of the long-established rule of mandatory celibacy in the Catholic Church.

Might I be allowed to make an alternative recommendation to that of doing away with priestly celibacy in the Catholic Church.

Might I point out that celibacy is only an issue in the Latin part of the Catholic Church and which, because of historical circumstances, is the dominant force in the Catholic Church at this point in time; besides the Catholic Church is only one branch of the ancient Christian Churches. There are other historic Christian Churches, for instance the Orthodox Churches and the Eastern Churches, in which celibacy is not an issue; these ancient Churches allow for a celibate and non-celibate priesthood. In some of these non-Catholic ancient churches there are elements in full communion with the Catholic Church, for instance elements of the Greek and Armenian Churches.

These are non-Latin Catholics and like the Orthodox and Armenian Churches (and the other Eastern Churches) allow for a celibate and non-celibate priesthood.

My recommendation is that these non-Latin Catholic Churches be invited to administer, say in Ireland and elsewhere in the Latin dominated areas of the Catholic Church. This would allow the Latin part of Catholic Church to maintain its 1,000 year celibate tradition and enable the non-Latin Catholic part of the Catholic Church to expand (and hopefully reduce the Latin monopoly in the Catholic Church, which I believe to be greatly injurious to the work of the Catholic Church) and offer Catholics worldwide a wider choice in practising their Catholic faith.

I would even go further and recommend that some of the Protestant churches on the island of Ireland, and elsewhere, align themselves with one of the ancient non-Catholic Churches — such as the Orthodox and Eastern Churches — and enable these ancient churches to expand their ministry and offer a wider choice of practice to all Christians both in Ireland and worldwide.

Micheal O’Cathail

Sandycove

Co Dublin