Seminaries Would Be Full, If Celibacy Was Optional, Offaly Express, November 25, 2009

'Seminaries Would Be Full, If Celibacy Was Optional'

Offaly Express
November 25, 2009

http://www.offalyexpress.ie/religious-news/Seminaries-would-be-full-if.5857069.jp

In an interview with Ashling Mackey, Borris-in-Ossory PP Fr Jackie Robinson speaks about the priesthood, his views on celibacy and the 'black and amber'.

A NATIVE of Kilkenny, Fr Robinson has been serving the parish of Borris-in-Ossory for the past ten years.

However, throughout his career, he's never strayed too far away from his native black and amber. "I'm a black and amber man," he says,"and I'm very proud of my nephew, Jackie Tyrell, who plays wing back for Kilkenny."

Following his ordination in 1973, Fr Robinson's first parish was St Patrick's in Kilkenny City, where he spent over eight years.

He then spent time in the parishes of Dunnamaggin, Ferrybank and Castlecomer before moving to Durrow. He was then made Parish Priest of Aghaboe, where he spent five years, before his next appointment to Borris-in-Ossory.

Fr. Jackie Robinson, Parish Priest Borris in Ossory, Co. Laois.
Photo by Alf Harvey

"I was ordained in 1973, but when I told our Bishop at the time that I wanted to become a priest, he nearly fell over and told me I would never make it. But here I am, 36 years later, still in the job," he laughs.

Fr Robinson decided to become a priest after seeing the work of local priest was doing. "He roped me into concerts and pantomines, and got me involved with the scouts. We brought children camping to Kilmore Quay in Wexford.

This was during the 1970's and there was still a lot of poverty in Ireland, and a lot of those kids hadn't even seen the sea before. I got to know this priest, and I liked what he was doing and I thought if he could do it, I could too.

"We also had a very progressive bishop at the time in Bishop Peter Birch and he was very much into helping people with disabilities and travellers. He done a lot of work in that area."

Fr Robinson says that the work of these two men inspired him to join the priesthood.

However, there is one area of the religious life that he feels is outdated and needs to change.

"I have written and spoken a lot about it in the past, but the issue of celibacy is a bugbear with me, as it is for a lot of other priests. I can see no great need for it in these times. We are losing a lot of vocations because of the rule, which is outdated."

Fr Robinson feels that celibacy should be optional for both men and women who choose to serve God. "The life of a priest can be a very social life, but at the end of the day no matter what we have faced we have to come home to an empty house and that can be difficult."

Pointing out the loneliness that priests and people in religious orders can feel, he recalled one Christmas morning in Castlecomer when he was called to attend a house where a young baby had died from cot death.

"I was called down to the house before 8am mass, and I will never forget what I saw there that morning."

He described it as a nativity scene, with the young husband standing over his wife who was cradling their dead baby in her arms.

"I went back to the house and cried my eyes out after that, and still had to face into the Christmas Masses. We are dealing with all sorts, good and bad, and have no one to share it with," he says.

"It's different if you live in a community, like the nuns or Redemptorist priests," Fr Robinson continues, "and they will stress that it is the community life that keeps them going. I don't want to make a big issue of celibacy, but the Church has lost a lot of men and women because of this outdated rule. This is a big crisis facing the Catholic Church, our culture changed, relationships and sexuality changed and optional celibacy is the way to go," said Fr Robinson.

"If I had my way, we would have married priests and women priests. "If celibacy became optional in the morning, the seminaries would be full again."

Despite the falling number of priests, there has never been as much lay participation in the Church as there is today and Fr Robinson acknowledges this. "It's the people of the parish and the faith of the committed people that keeps me going," he said.

"At the recent re-dedication of Killasmeestia church my job on the night was to thank people," he explains, "and I had four foolscap pages of people to thank.

"We also have teams of people working in the Parish, such as the liturgy team or the baptism team, without all those people I wouldn't be able to serve the people as well as I would like to."

Despite his strong feelings on the subject of celibacy, Fr Robsinon says he enjoys being a priest.

"The priesthood itself is great. I enjoy preaching God's word, celebrating the Eucharist, helping people everyday. There is a tremendous variety to our work, everyday is different."

Fr Robinson continued: "We bring God's sacramental healing presence to people at crucial times in their lives - birth, baptism, marriage and death."

However, he claims the Sacraments are at risk of becoming extinct because of the shortage of priests and because today's generation don't have the commitment to get involved in the Church.

"Half of Catholics in the world are going without the sacraments because of the shortage of Priests," he said. When I was growing up we were soaked in the culture of religion and it was easy to practice religion then. People are growing up in a different culture now - that of materialism and in a society where religion doesn't impact as much on life as it used to.

He said: "Some couples come to have a child baptised, but they have never been in Church from one end of the year to another. But they want their child baptised because they feel it's part of the procedure or a social event."

Fr Robinson said some people are missing the whole point of baptism and other sacraments. "It's demoralising when you put a lot of work into Confirmation and Communion services and you try as best you can to get the message across that the day is about commitment to the church, but you don't see them again.

"This is something that the diocese is worried about, because if the sacramental life dies, then the church is dying and that will mean the end of Mass."

However, Fr Robinson said that Mass attendances have levelled off and he feels that the recession might make people more aware of God's presence in their life.

"When you have a lot of money in your pocket, your not inclined to think as much about life if is about," he said.

"I suppose it's difficult to know if the recession will bring people back to the Church or not, we'll have to look at the figures over a two or three year period."