Companionship, not sex, at heart of celibacy debate

Despite the hierarchy of the church being against Chris McGillion speaking at yesterday’s National Council of Priests’ convention, the journalist and lecturer drew interest from the 180 strong attendees.

At one point a priest addressed the convention, telling how he’d played golf with a group of priests once a week for a long time.

He said they would talk about the news and the footy, but none of them ever said they had had “a shithouse week”.

“And there have been some shithouse times,” the priest said.

Mr McGillion co-authored the book Our Fathers — What Australian Catholic Priests Really Think About Their Lives And Their Church, which included a survey of 542 priests around the country.

Mr McGillion said through interviews with a random selection of priests it was clear that loneliness was an issue for priests.

“When you drill down and talk to priests, they don’t have families or close friends any more,” he said.

Mr McGillion said celibacy was too often looked at from a lust point of view, but there was a human need for companionship.

He said the survey, which gained national media attention, revealed 90 per cent considered their life fulfilling.

He said 36 per cent of priests believed gay people should be allowed to receive holy communion and 67 per cent said it was not always a sin of married couples to use an artificial birth control.

He said there was a growing gap between priests and the church’s moral teachings.

The survey found that for 20 per cent of priests the preferred age of retirement was 65, while 21 per cent said 70 and 19 per cent said 75.

“There are a whole lot who want to retire a lot sooner than what demographers assume they will,” he said.

“Or there are a lot who want to get out but can’t and will be disillusioned and disgruntled for a long time.”

Mr McGillion said to not address the question of where the church is going brings to mind the idea of ‘fiddling while Rome burns’.