Bishop Hieronymus Emusugut Joya of Maralal in Kenya recently called on women to respect the celibacy of priests and not to “force them into affairs that go against their beliefs and priestly calling”.
However, Fr Roy Donovan, parish priest of Caherconlish and Inch St Lawrence in Co Limerick, told the Irish Independent that the bishop’s comments showed a negative view of women and he was “blaming women” while men were “not taking responsibility for their own sexuality”.
Setting out a new set of disciplinary norms for the clergy of his diocese, Bishop Emusugut Joya imposed a 7pm curfew on priests and banned on overnight guests in priests’ residences without his permission.
As part of this reform, the prelate has also removed seven priests from ministry for alleged violations of canon law.
In his message to the faithful, the bishop made an explicit appeal to women to respect the priestly commitment to celibacy.
“For those intending to tempt priests and force them into affairs that go against their beliefs and priestly calling, please stop. These priests are human and have feelings. If you convince them, they might fall,” he said.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Fr Donovan said the statement raised questions about the view of priesthood “as if priests are special species”.
He said it also raised issues about seminary formation in an all-male environment as an outdated way of learning. “What about women and men learning together as in the modern world”. Synodality, he said, saw women and men as equal in baptism.
Fr Diarmuid Hogan of the diocese of Galway told the Irish Independent: “Priests and religious freely undertake a commitment to celibacy and to chastity. These commitments are clear and unambiguous and the responsibility for living them faithfully rests entirely with the individual priest, sister or brother, who has made them before God.
“In the same way, those who enter into the sacrament of marriage freely undertake vows of lifelong faithfulness and fidelity to one another and are thus responsible to each other and to God to live them out.
“In a culture where there can sometimes be a tendency to shift responsibility onto other people or institutions, it is important to reaffirm this core Christian principle of personal accountability.
“God has given each of us the gift of free will. While people may encounter temptation in many forms, we remain responsible for our own choices and actions.”
In March, a Catholic bishop in Belgium said he plans to ordain married men to the priesthood by 2028, despite the church’s mandatory celibacy rule.
In a pastoral letter, Bishop Johan Bonny cited a shortage of priests and said “the number of unmarried men who want to become priests has fallen to just above zero” in many dioceses.