Ireland: The Bishop Emeritus of Derry Against Priestly Celibacy

Bishop Edward Daly, Bishop Emeritus of Derry, in North Ireland, advocates an end to priestly celibacy in the Catholic Church.  In his last work, A Troubled See: Memoirs of a Derry Bishop, the bishop maintains that married priests are the answer to a crucial lack of vocations.

“I think that priests should have the liberty to marry if they wish to.  That could create whole new problems, but I think that it is something that should be considered,” declared Bishop Daly on BBC's Good Morning Ulster program on September 13.

77-year-old Bishop Daly, now chaplain of the Foyle Hospice in Derry, deplores the fact that, for Rome, “doctrine and orthodoxy are more important than the pastoral experience in a parish,” and believes that if more bishops were chosen from within the parochial clergy, this would be a “positive development.”  Bishop Daly claims that celibacy is an obligation that has turned away from the priestly vocation “many marvelous potential candidates,” and that has pushed “other excellent persons to renounce their priesthood”, causing “a great loss to the Church.” – No comment! (Sources: apic/bbc – DICI#241, October 1, 2011)

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