Italian women appeal to Pope Francis to end priests' celibacy vow

[SummerSnow]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/the-pope/10839223/Italian-women-appeal-to-Pope-Francis-to-end-priests-celibacy-vow.html

[rocktivity]

1. Candidate for this year's "You Call This NEWS?" Award

The "You Forgot 'The Not From The Onion' Disclaimer" category.

A group of 26 Italian women who claim to be having affairs with Catholic priests have written a joint letter to Pope Francis begging him to end the Catholic Church's ban on priests having sex and getting married. The women, who met through a Facebook campaign, wrote to the Pope requesting a meeting to put forward their case, claiming they were just "a small sample" of the many partners of priests "living in silence".

"We love these men, they love us, and in most cases, despite all efforts to renounce it, one cannot manage to give up such a solid and beautiful bond," they wrote. "We humbly place our suffering at your feet in the hope that something may change, not just for us, but for the good of the entire Church," added the unnamed women in the letter that was first reported by the website Vatican Insider...

Some 6,000 parish priests who have left the priesthood to wed now live in Italy, compared to a total of 33,000 parish priests currently in service...

Oh, a GROUP of Italian women -- the headline suggests that the country is undergoing a "horny as a brass band" epidemic. Holy cognitive dissonance, if you'll pardon the expression.

I've read that the official reason for celibacy is because Jesus was (but does his being unmarried mean he was celibate?), and that the unofficial reason for celibacy is to prevent the wealth of the church form being inherited by the priests' widows and children.


rocktivity

[jberryhill]

4. Yeah, I had the same thought...

"Things sound a little desperate in Italy."

Oh well, back to Sophia Loren movie night...

[lpbk2713]

2. Italian women appeal to Pope Francis ...

Why that old rascal!

[Nonhlanhla]

3. I knew a couple like that

I knew a couple like that (the wife is now deceased) - ex priest and ex nun. Fell in love when they were young, got released from their vows, and got married. Raised two great kids and saw four beautiful grandchildren born to them before the wife sadly passed away at too young an age. Two of the nicest people I've ever met. When I think that their kids and grandkids almost never existed, that their love story almost never got written, it makes me realize once again how sad the Catholic celibacy requirement is.

[jberryhill]

5. Any of them named Virginia Pippellini?