The retired Bishop of Derry has said he has no regrets about celibacy in his own life as a priest and as a bishop, though he believes it is something the Church needs to look at.
Speaking to ciNews about his comments on mandatory celibacy for the priesthood in his memoirs A Troubled See: Memoirs of a Derry Bishop, which was launched last week, Dr Edward Daly said, “I value the vow of celibacy in my own life, I feel it has enhanced my life as a priest.”
He said that he was not saying celibacy should be completely abolished, as reported by some media, but he was saying that it needed to be looked at for people who feel they would not be able to live up to a vow of celibacy or undertake it and yet who feel called to the priesthood.
“We need to look at the possibilities of introducing them to the priesthood,” he explained.
Dr Daly, who was Bishop of Derry between 1974 and 1993, describes celibacy in his book as “an obligation that has caused many wonderful potential candidates to turn away from a vocation, and other fine men to resign their priesthood at great loss to the church.”
Elsewhere Dr Daly, who came to world attention through images of him waving a white handkerchief over a wounded man in the crossfire of Bloody Sunday in 1972, writes, “If things continue as they are, a lot of parish communities will not have a priest in a few years’ time, and those that they have will be older, weary and greatly overworked.”
Why should celibacy be “the great sacred and unyielding arbiter, the paradigm of diocesan priesthood?” he asks.
In his memoirs, Dr Edward Daly says he hopes “senior members of the clergy and laity make their views more forcefully known” on the issue of celibacy and he says these views are often expressed privately but seldom publicly.
Elsewhere he writes, “There is certainly an important and enduring place for a celibate priesthood. But I believe that there should also be a place in the modern Catholic Church for a married priesthood and for men who do not wish to commit themselves to celibacy.”
He acknowledges that admission of married men to the priesthood could well create new problems and issues but comments, “under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, major decisions must be made.”
Speaking to ciNews, Dr Daly said one of “the most heart-breaking tasks” he had had as a bishop was when men came to him to say that they could no longer remain celibate and as a result they wanted to leave the priesthood. “We lost some very fine priests as a result of that.”
He added that a “number of young people I know certainly would consider the priesthood; they consider they have a vocation but they find the vow of celibacy daunting.”
Referring to the time given by Pope Benedict to reflect on the issue, Dr Daly said the Pontiff had decided that celibacy should continue.
“But I feel that the Church must look at this again”, he said and added that he was not the first Irish bishop to speak about this and that other prelates around the world had also raised the matter.
“I am sure this discussion will go on. The Church is always changing – the only thing that remains the same is Christ and his teaching.”
He added, “The Church will look at it in due course. Possibly not in my lifetime but maybe some time in the future and they may take a new position on this.”
Many members of the laity felt the same as he did in relation to celibacy, the retired bishop said.
“I hope they get the courage to speak out. When you get older you have more courage to say things than when you are younger, ironically. I’ve had time to reflect and read and think and look at the church in a more detached way than I could as a bishop in regards to this,” he commented.
Dr Daly, who is 77 and now serves as a chaplain in a hospice in Derry, described his memoirs as a book about “the journey from the mayhem and savagery of the Bogside to the peace and serenity of the hospice – that’s my journey over the last 40 years.”