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BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: As American Catholics have reeled from the disclosures of past sexual abuses by priests, and evidence they were covered up, one of the questions raised has concerned priestly celibacy -- abstinence from sex. Was that requirement a cause of the abuses? Is it necessary for dedicated ministry? Should it be made optional? Lucky Severson talked about celibacy with priests... and former priests.
LUCKY SEVERSON: Tim Higgins is a chaplain at a correctional institution for juveniles in Portland, Maine. Eight years ago he was a Catholic priest -- Father Tim Higgins -- until, after a lot of prayer, he reached the conclusion that he could no longer live a celibate life.
Pastor TIM HIGGINS (Former Priest): I love priesthood, love ministry, love the work of the priest. That's why I am doing a variety of ministerial things now. That calling burns in my heart. But the desire to come home to a partner was just as big as time went on.
SEVERSON: So he is no longer a priest, but he is a father of a little boy and girl, doing what many fathers do, picking his kids up from day care. He is also a symbol of what some Catholics think contributed to the growing pedophilia scandal -- the policy of celibacy. This is Father Richard McBrien, a theologian at the University of Notre Dame.
Father RICHARD MCBRIEN (University of Notre Dame): Celibacy doesn't cause pedophilia, but the fact that we have obligatory celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church means that the priesthood is an attraction to a certain type of candidate who otherwise might not be attracted, or as much attracted, to the priesthood.
SEVERSON: According to a recent poll by NEWSWEEK Newsweek, 69 percent of Catholics favor allowing priests to be married. But for many Catholics, like Father John McLoskey, director of the Catholic Information Center, the tradition of celibacy should never be changed.
Father JOHN MCLOSKEY (Catholic Information Center): The Catholic Church will not and cannot change its traditional teachings and disciplines simply because of a particular moment and a particular time in a particular country. That is not how the Church has had a 2,000-year history, by going according to opinion polls.
SEVERSON: Father Jim Stack is a priest at the St. Jermone Catholic Church in Hyattsville, Maryland. He says times are difficult, which is perhaps an understatement, but the scandal has not altered his view of celibacy.
Father JAMES STACK (St. Jermone Catholic Church): I love celibacy. I enjoy it. It's a gift from God, where your love can be given to all. And that is consequently one of the neatest things about my life. I like loving people that the world blows off and thinks that they are not important.
SEVERSON: He became a priest 15 years ago,. Bbut not before anguishing over whether he could stay true to the vow of celibacy.
Father STACK: Boy, I really thought about it hard, too. I had, you know, times where I dated and really had to really say, "Can I do this?" And ultimately it wasn't me being able to do it. It was Christ who said to me, "You can do it because I am with you. And I will always be with you."
Pastor HIGGINS: I truly believe that it is a gift for some and for others like myself, it was a discipline and I finally confronted it. I said, "This is not a healthy life style for me. I need to do something."
Father STACK: Shouldn't they have made that choice before they got involved in this thing? I mean, you make a promise. You make a commitment.
SEVERSON: In his new life, Pastor Tim Higgins counsels a young couple about their upcoming wedding, [at] which he will officiate. He says his bishop questioned his sanity when he said he was leaving the cChurch, but that he was not going to lead what he calls, a double life.
Pastor HIGGINS: I knew of priests who had a girlfriend in the parish and hadn't told anyone. A number of others who went on vacation and had a girlfriend or a boyfriend while away on vacation and wanted to kind of experience that intimacy, physical emotion, etc., and then come back to the parish. That's a double life that I was not able to confront for myself.
SEVERSON: It was not, he says, about sex.
Pastor HIGGINS: Sex is probably 10 percent.
SEVERSON (to Pastor Higgins): So it is over-rated?
LUCKY SEVERSON: Tim Higgins is a chaplain at a correctional institution for juveniles in Portland, Maine. Eight years ago he was a Catholic priest -- Father Tim Higgins -- until, after a lot of prayer, he reached the conclusion that he could no longer live a celibate life.
Pastor TIM HIGGINS (Former Priest): I love priesthood, love ministry, love the work of the priest. That's why I am doing a variety of ministerial things now. That calling burns in my heart. But the desire to come home to a partner was just as big as time went on.SEVERSON: So he is no longer a priest, but he is a father of a little boy and girl, doing what many fathers do, picking his kids up from day care. He is also a symbol of what some Catholics think contributed to the growing pedophilia scandal -- the policy of celibacy. This is Father Richard McBrien, a theologian at the University of Notre Dame.
Father RICHARD MCBRIEN (University of Notre Dame): Celibacy doesn't cause pedophilia, but the fact that we have obligatory celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church means that the priesthood is an attraction to a certain type of candidate who otherwise might not be attracted, or as much attracted, to the priesthood.SEVERSON: According to a recent poll by NEWSWEEK Newsweek, 69 percent of Catholics favor allowing priests to be married. But for many Catholics, like Father John McLoskey, director of the Catholic Information Center, the tradition of celibacy should never be changed.
Father JOHN MCLOSKEY (Catholic Information Center): The Catholic Church will not and cannot change its traditional teachings and disciplines simply because of a particular moment and a particular time in a particular country. That is not how the Church has had a 2,000-year history, by going according to opinion polls.
SEVERSON: Father Jim Stack is a priest at the St. Jermone Catholic Church in Hyattsville, Maryland. He says times are difficult, which is perhaps an understatement, but the scandal has not altered his view of celibacy.
Father JAMES STACK (St. Jermone Catholic Church): I love celibacy. I enjoy it. It's a gift from God, where your love can be given to all. And that is consequently one of the neatest things about my life. I like loving people that the world blows off and thinks that they are not important.SEVERSON: He became a priest 15 years ago,. Bbut not before anguishing over whether he could stay true to the vow of celibacy.
Father STACK: Boy, I really thought about it hard, too. I had, you know, times where I dated and really had to really say, "Can I do this?" And ultimately it wasn't me being able to do it. It was Christ who said to me, "You can do it because I am with you. And I will always be with you."
Pastor HIGGINS: I truly believe that it is a gift for some and for others like myself, it was a discipline and I finally confronted it. I said, "This is not a healthy life style for me. I need to do something."
Father STACK: Shouldn't they have made that choice before they got involved in this thing? I mean, you make a promise. You make a commitment.SEVERSON: In his new life, Pastor Tim Higgins counsels a young couple about their upcoming wedding, [at] which he will officiate. He says his bishop questioned his sanity when he said he was leaving the cChurch, but that he was not going to lead what he calls, a double life.
Pastor HIGGINS: I knew of priests who had a girlfriend in the parish and hadn't told anyone. A number of others who went on vacation and had a girlfriend or a boyfriend while away on vacation and wanted to kind of experience that intimacy, physical emotion, etc., and then come back to the parish. That's a double life that I was not able to confront for myself.
SEVERSON: It was not, he says, about sex.
Pastor HIGGINS: Sex is probably 10 percent.
SEVERSON (to Pastor Higgins): So it is over-rated?
Dr. CHESTER GILLIS (Theology Professor, Georgetown University): There have been several scandals, yes, in the Church's history. One of the most embarrassing things about the Church is its history. And if you know that history well, you understand that there have been foibles in the Church and that the Church has survived them.
SEVERSON: Tim Higgins is just one of thousands of Catholic priests who have left the Church to get married -- one factor creating a severe shortage. In fact, the number of priests leaving the priesthood has actually been accelerating. In 1980, there were almost 59,000 priests in the U.S. Last year, the number had dropped to 46,000. And fewer are applying for the ministry.
SEVERSON: But from Father Stack's point of view, the responsibility of marriage can actually be a distraction from his ministry.
