Katolska "prästfruar" skriver till påven

"ROME — Pope Benedict XVI, still struggling to repair the damage wrought by a wave of paedophile scandals, now faces a fresh challenge, from women loved -- and often abandoned -- by Catholic priests.

About a dozen women have written an open letter to the pope challenging the Church's position that priestly celibacy is a sacred commitment.

"As far as I'm concerned, celibacy is completely useless," said one of the signatories, Stefania Salomone, 42, who had a five-year relationship with a priest.

"It was introduced for financial reasons," she argued, alluding to the fact that clergy without family were less expensive to house.

Pointing to the Church's earlier history, she added: "People forget that there were 39 married popes."

The letter was partly a reaction to recent comments by the pope upholding the nearly 900-year-old requirement of celibacy for priests, calling it "the sign of full devotion" and of an "entire commitment to the Lord".

Salomone said: "We told ourselves it was time to react.""


Och här är en av berättelserna:

"Luisa, 38, said she had a relationship -- and a child -- with a priest who is now 35. They met six years ago when he was the priest in a nearby parish.

"He came to live with me," Luisa said. "He told his family that he was living in his parish, and his parish that he was living with his family."

The people in Luisa's village looked the other way, she said, adding that the couple considered joining the Anglican Communion, which allows its priests to marry, so that they could come out of the closet.

But in the end the priest decided to leave Luisa, even before the birth of the child, now aged 20 months. "It was very hard. His family sent him to an exorcist and accused me of being a witch.

"As for the bishop, he told me to have my child adopted," she said.

Her son is now 20 months old. His purported father saw him for only 10 minutes when he was just two months old: "And that was all," Luisa said, adding that he had refused to acknowledge his paternity.

She said she was disgusted with the attitude of the Catholic Church and decided to have her son baptised in the Anglican Communion."

Läs mer här.


Och här finns brevet.

Nedan ett utdrag:

"What happens, in fact, if a priest falls in love? He can choose:

1. Sacrifice his own needs and feelings, as well as the woman's, for a "greater good" (what?) 2. Live out the relationship in hiding, with the help and complicity of the superiors themselves sometimes; it is sufficient that it does not come to be known and does not leave traces (ie, children) 3. Throw away the cassock, the usual expression that defines the choice of someone who can't take it any more, that is to say, a traitor. Each of these options causes great pain to the people involved who, things going as they do, have much to lose.

And what are the woman's options?

1. Sacrifice her own needs and feelings in favor of "a greater good" (in this case, the good of the priest) 2. Live out the relationship in secret, spending the rest of her life waiting for the priest to be able to spend a pinch of time with her, stolen moments, sacrificing the dream of a relationship with a "normal" man. 3. Bear the burden of being the one who forced the priest to "throw away the cassock", in addition to sharing the burden of his alleged "failure." A priest who leaves is considered to be "the one who failed to go ahead with the great renunciation required," and is therefore somewhat cast aside. And this is a difficult thing to bear, for one who believes he is "a chosen one, someone who received a special call," an Alter Christus, who with only a gesture of consecrated hands, transforms the nature of things ... who forgives, who saves!

Is it possible to give up all that? And for what?

For the normal life of a couple, that sounds like a trivial matter compared to the powers the "staff member of God" can wield through holy orders.

And yet, one of the most recurring statements of priests to their "companions", sums it up in a few words: "I need you in order to be who I am", that is, a priest."