Daphne Caruana Galizia’s piece entitled Ending celibacy solves nothing is, and is meant to be, as usual provocative. It contains some arguments that, on a theoretical level, have some merit. However, as I believe she well knows, on a practical level they hold no water at all.

To the best of my knowledge, there are no problems with sexual abuse by priests in churches where celibacy is not a requirement and – unless all these other churches are much better at covering up the abuse – that is a strong argument in favour of the hypothesis that ending celibacy will at least solve something.

Her argument that married priests will hit on women whereas celibate priests will not, is hard to prove but most likely incorrect. There is no reason to believe that there is more sex outside marriage than outside celibacy.

Similarly, her idea that when the faithful turn to priests for succour and inspiration in coping with life the married ones will immediately start talking about their own problems is totally unsupported by the successful functioning of countless married priests and counsellors. And, to the best of my knowledge, there is no significant difference between the percentage of failed marriages in the Catholic part and the rest of the population.

Ending celibacy will not solve everything but it will definitely be a big step in the right direction!

Simon Oosterman

SLIEMA