Fr Anthony Musaala a
Ugandan Catholic priest of Kampala Archdiocese has hit headlines in both local
and international media since the publication of his letter entitled: An Open
Letter to Bishops, Priests and Laity: Failure of Celibate Chastity Among
Diocesan Priests. It is dated, Tuesday
March 12, 2013.
It is a very
controversial letter addressed not only to Bishops and priests but also to the
faithful. In other words it is written to every member of the Catholic Church
in Uganda and Africa as a whole! It
touches allegations of sexual abuse in the Church, and what Musaala calls the
conspiracy of both clergy and laity not to go public on this matter; and above
all it reveals Musaala’s unhappiness, misery and bitter regrets for having
chosen a celibate way of life which unfortunately he claims is imposed on
him! He wants to get married and at the
same time remain a Roman Catholic priest.
But the Catholic faithful in Uganda whom he naively thinks are ignorant
and backward have totally refused to accept his position and ideas!
In his letter Musaala
claims:
That many catholic
priests and some bishops in Uganda and elsewhere no longer live celibate
chastity and that some of them have children. (This is a bitter remark and very
difficult to swallow! But to make things
better in our Church we have to take it into consideration and take necessary
steps to remedy the situation.)
That unlike in Europe
and America, the laity in Africa are collaborating and conspiring with the
clergy to say nothing about the sexual abuses in the Church.
That he himself at the
age of sixteen was sexually abused by a brother. (If he truly went through this bitter and
devastating experience, he deserves our sympathies, pastoral and motherly care
and psychological help.)
That celibacy is
meaningless, an unnecessary burden and yoke imposed upon the priests. He thus
writes, “I believe that in time we will be freed from this unnecessary yoke,
unhelpful as it is.”
That the root cause of
sexual abuses in the Church, the unhappiness and misery of priests is because
they are not married. He thus writes,
‘’I suggest that now more than at any time we must begin an open and frank
dialogue about Catholic priests becoming happily married men, rather than being
miserable and single.’’
We cannot deny that
sexual abuses on part of the clergy have taken place in the Catholic Church in
Africa. And as Church all of us clergy
and laity should work together to find ways to tackle this enormous problem. And to offer all necessary assistance to the
victims, so they can rediscover themselves, have their inner wounds healed, and
go on with their lives in peace.
And this problem
demands among other things a critical look at the training of the priests. A priest is meant to serve and relate well
with all God’s people both men and women.
But unfortunately from minor to major seminaries his trained in total
isolation from women! How do we then
expect such young man in the prime of life to behave properly with women after
his ordination when during his entire training he had little or no time to
develop the sexual dimension of his life?
But Musaala in his
letter sounds a very bitter and a psychologically troubled priest totally tired
of a single and a celibate life! He
gives the impression that he wants to get married! And he naively believes that the only way he
and all other catholic priests can get out of their miseries and become happy
is to drop the yoke of what he calls administrative celibacy. And be allowed to marry without being
relieved of their priestly duties.
And in his bitterness
he paints a very dark and negative picture of the Church in Africa whose
bishops and priests are in general a morally rotten lot! And a Church whose
laity are so ignorant and blind to see that priestly celibacy is a meaningless
and an unnecessary yoke from which their priests should be freed! I would like to tell Fr. Musaala and the
whole world that regardless of our many problems, there is still a lot of good
in the Catholic Church in Africa.
His efforts to convince
the laity that Catholic priests should be allowed to marry have so far yielded
no fruits! The laity want the catholic
priests to remain celibate! He thus writes ‘’When I ask lay people whether
catholic priests should have the option to marry the answer is always
NO.’’ The laity know better what they
believe and the values of their Christian faith than Musaala the theologian and
philosopher does! Musaala does not see any meaning in Christian or Religious Celibacy. And this is why he has decided to call it
administrative celibacy, which he conceives as a tool Church authorities use to
oppress the priests! The faithful
through their Christian formation are aware that Jesus lived a celibate life
and that his life was meaningful!
The Church I believe
might in the future allow the Roman Catholic priests the option to marry on the
ground that there is no intrinsic connection between priesthood and
celibacy! And this is the case in the
Orthodox Church. It should also be
remembered that St. Peter the first Roman Pontiff was a married man!
(Lk.4:38-39). But the Catholic Church
would not allow its priest to marry on the ground that Christian celibacy is
meaningless as Musaala would like us to believe. Celibacy just like marriage is
a Christian value!
Although Fr.Anthony
gives a long list of cases of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Uganda,
cases which for sure demand investigation and appropriate action taken, the
basic point he wants to make is that he himself is tired of a celibate life he
claims is imposed on him! But the naked
truth is that nobody has imposed celibacy on Musaala!
I personally know Fr.
Anthony Musaala. We played football
together, ate together and took walks together in the Benedictine novitiate at
Nanyuki, Kenya!
I composed luganda songs
like: Tweyagale Wama (Les us enjoy life!) and Musaala who was already a
musician accompanied them with a synthesiser and we entertained people! At that
time both of us were young adults in our 20s!
And we knew what we were doing!
We were not small boys! We were
responsible for our choices! Then
Musaala made a choice to leave the Benedictines and eventually went back to
England where he had lived for many years.
He then joined a Major
Seminary for priestly training! He was
already an adult at this time, old enough to get married! But he chose not to marry and opted for a
priestly celibate life! How can he then
claim that someone imposed celibacy on him!
Even on the very day of his ordination to the priesthood he was totally
free to tell the Bishop not to ordain him!
If Musaala had said
that the celibate life he freely chose to live was very difficult for him and
that sometimes he falls, I would totally agree with him. With all that sexual energy we have at the
centre of our being, boiling and stronger than the storms of the sea, only a
hypocrite could claim that celibacy is easy!
Celibacy is beyond the natural order.
It is by the help of God alone that we can live it.
And Fr. Anthony naively
believes that the gate way to happiness for a miserable, single and lonely
priest is marriage! Many people forget
that marital chastity or faithfulness is as difficult as celibate
chastity! Since we are attracted to a limitless
number of the people of the other sex and can fall in love with different
people, this makes marital chastity extremely difficult! So just like celibacy, sticking with
unwavering fidelity to one partner for life is beyond the natural order! It is by God’s help alone that married people
can do it.
And in today’s world both
celibacy and marriage are in crisis! The
rate of divorce today is shocking! And
many married people are regretting why they got married and wish they were
celibates just as many celibates wish they were married!
So Musaala should know
that although in the future the Church might offer Catholic priests the option
to marry, we might find ourselves having as many miserable married priests as
we have miserable single priests today!
Happiness does not depend on being married or not! But on walking the unique and difficult path
God has set before each one of us!
Both celibacy and
marriage are Christian values and should be appreciated. They complement each other in the Body of
Christ, the Church. Neither celibacy nor
marriage is easy! Both are lived only by
the grace of God!
Dominic
Vincent Nkoyoyo
