By Chrispinus Wekesa.
I am a man of many words, but today keeping in mind that it is the beginning, I don’t want to tire you with many stories because as time goes, you will get them.
I know that the work of a journalist is to tell stories but at times the journalist becomes part of the stories told. So today I begin with myself because charity begins at home and I have to appreciate this fact.
Over the last few days, many people have condemned the Catholic Church Clergy for being too insincere in their vow of celibacy but you will only criticize these people and the Catholic Church constructively if you understand in detail the catholic dogma.
Kenyas first Cardinal Maurice Otunga who is admired by many and will soon to become A Saint. He is a living example of a celibate man. Who can dispute that
This does not mean that I support some priest, actions of sodomising small boys and those priests who have hidden concubines, I am strongly opposed to those priests who are immoral even more than the prostitutes on Koinange Street but I appreciate the fact that celibacy has to be upheld.
To explain my point well on why celibacy should be observed, I will offer three accounts based on personal experience, observation and the last according to the catechism of the Catholic Church keeping in mind that I am a Catholic by faith and latter in life, I dropped my dream of becoming a catholic priest because of my growing sexuality.
In the year 2001, I joined Mother of Apostles Seminary in Eldoret where I had the dream of becoming a catholic priest. I was one of the few lucky students in the seminary who had the chance to attend in-depth catechism classes because I had not received the sacrament of confirmation when I joined the seminary.
I went through the catechism classes for one year where I was thought by one Sister Valerie Okoye from Nigeria and Mary Albert from Uganda. In these classes we were taken through the history of the church and why celibacy must be upheld with one very simple reason being, it is meant to make one get married to the church. By virtue of one not getting married, he or she will be fully devoted and won’t be distracted from his job by family demands.
Secondly, no one is forced to join the priesthood and you are given enough time to decide whether you want to join the priesthood or not. That’s why I opted to not because latter in life, I saw to it that I might break the vow.
Apparently, the priesthood attracts many great benefits. You will be taken to the university for free. It only takes four years to learn about church service and after the eight years, you are a man of the cloth and are entitled to a free decent house, possibly a mansion and a good car. You also have the opportunity to roam the world using the congregation’s hard earned offerings.
I beg to ask, how many of us will come out strongly and reject such lucrative offers? Some of the young men who I know don’t want to struggle through their life and make it opt for these freebies and latter in life they are the people crying that the church should overhaul its rules and make celibacy an option. For heavens sake why?
Yes I understand that sex is part of life but we should also appreciate the fact the Catholic Church has the Holy sacrament of Matrimony or marriage that is administered and no one has been denied the chance to serve God. You can marry and be a catechist.
On the other hand, during my four stints in the junior seminary, I had a chance to mingle at a personal level with some of the Bishops, priests and Nuns. One thing I realized especially of some priests is that they chose to go for priesthood in order to get all the freebies and latter quit. These are the many priests that have tainted the name of the church and should be ex-communicated.
Others are dedicated and are there to serve the people of God and these are the likes of my loved Bishops and role models Cornelius Korir and Maurice Crowley.
This is a brief explanation as to why those who want to uphold celibacy should do it and there is no need to find short cuts in life. Struggle if you have to and find your way out than lying to the whole world that you are celibate yet you have harbored a few concubines.
Before I down my pen, I know there are many of you who are saying that these are baseless facts and one should marry. The body behaves the way you train it, if you are used to sex, I don’t think you can do without it and I know from experience that if you can tame your feelings, they will remain tamed but we should not lie to ourselves that we cannot tame our feelings.
They are these simple but hard to follow rules that determine one who wants to be chaste and the other who wants to crave for sex all through his life. If you know that in future you will sodomise small boys and snatch peoples wives in a manner a kin to the Arch- Bishop of Bulawayo Pius Ncube, stop it, don’t try priesthood and spare the small boys and people’s wives.
There are many untold stories of the difficulties the priests and nuns who have broken their vows go through. The same fate awaits the ones who are going to break the vows and its better in priesthood as in life, when the deal is too good, think twice
No comments:
Post a Comment