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	Marching Onward, and Backward By Jim McGovern Philly.com March 15, 2011 http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/117988374.html A few weeks back, at the rosary group I go to, a friend brought up the story of St. Valentine. It seems he (or at least one of the several saints known by that name) did in fact exist around A.D. 260. The rest of the details are murky, but one popular story (perhaps tailored to suit the modern celebration of Valentine's Day) claims Valentine was a priest who defied a Roman marriage ban that was designed to keep young men marching off to war. According to that story, St. Val got caught performing marriages and was martyred for it. My rosary group is a pretty conservative Catholic lot, so I didn't bring up the fact that about 750 years after the death of St. Valentine, the pope took steps to impose the same restriction on his clergy. For the church, there may have been a financial motive. Among other things, celibacy would prevent priests from leaving church lands to their offspring, which was cutting into the church's land and other holdings. One wonders what the church would have been like if imperial Rome had lost its clout. Celibacy and the absolute power of Rome were among the policies the Eastern Rite churches did not adhere to at the Great Schism of that era, and those churches have somehow managed to survive. Instead of an empire ruled from Vatican City, a more local church, with less pomp and circumstance, might have been more like what Jesus had in mind. Peter, the first pope and the rock upon whom the church was built, was a family man. Early on in Jesus' ministry, one of the gospels mentions his healing Peter's mother-in-law. And there are married Roman Catholic priests today, even though Pope Benedict XVI has pronounced talk of repealing the celibacy rule to be as grave an offense as priestly sexual abuse. Married ministers and reverends of other denominations have been allowed to keep their wives and families after joining the Catholic Church. Since another priestly sex scandal has consumed Philadelphia, I've heard the argument that it has nothing to do with celibacy. But denying a man who chooses to serve God the right to a union with the person of his choice forces him to live an aberrant existence, and aberrance breeds aberrance. Without a healthy outlet for sexual urges, strange things can happen. So the church marches on - some would say backward. This year, it's unveiling changes in the liturgy that are expected to be more in line with what the Bible says and not as colloquial as parts of the Mass became after Vatican II. So Rome is crossing t's and dotting i's even amid news of inexcusable cover-ups that extend high into the church hierarchy. If St. Peter's Square were filled with Catholics demanding change, much as Egyptians did in Cairo's Tahrir Square, I wonder what might come of it. But I know that will never happen.
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