French cleric writes on celibacy

Bloomberg.com has a rather atypical story on a French cleric, Abbe Pierre.

The cleric gives no details about his liaisons, writing only that he indulged himself very rarely. The sex he did have brought him little, and was ``a real source of dissatisfaction, because I felt that I was not being true to myself.''

So he felt guilty and he wants to remove that guilt by allowing priests to marry? He notes:

For churchmen like Mathieu's father, Abbe Pierre recommends marriage. Jesus, he writes, had both married apostles like Peter and unmarried disciples like John. Marriage is acceptable for priests in the Eastern Orthodox Church and in the Maronite and Coptic Catholic sects, he adds. The Vatican's rejection of married priests ``does not hold up,'' he says.

So if a rejection of married priests does not hold up, I'm confused as to why Abbe Pierre feels guilty. After all, if sex is okay, why should he feel guilty? Maybe it's because, despite his assertions, he knows what he did was wrong...

In any case, I'm playing the same game the secular media is playing. Priests having sex should not lead to the question of removing the prohibition of priests marrying. It should lead to the question of priests, like any other unmarried men, having sex out of wedlock.