From the Morning Sentinel: Church acknowledges Dumoulin fatherhood, but takes issue with other details

The Rev. Marcel Dumoulin never denied that he fathered Judy Soucier’s child, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland said last week.

“We have a fair amount of documentation on this,” Diocese spokeswoman Susan Bernard said Tuesday.

…

Asked if a priest fathering a child is an unusual occurrence, Bernard said: “It certainly isn’t something that happens every day. Of course it’s unusual. Priests take a vow of celibacy.”

…

She said Dumoulin made a decision that he still wanted his vocation and recommitted to that vocation. Church officials said he needed to be responsible to the child, but did not force him to leave his vocation or to marry, according to Bernard.

…

“It’s not a crime,” she said. “This is not about a crime, to father a child. He certainly did break his vow of celibacy and that is a mistake to do that.”

First, just to cover what the PNCC teaches, celibacy is not mandatory, in fact most PNCC clergy are married because they are called to that grace. The grace of Marriage and Orders are not mutually exclusive. If the Holy Spirit grants a man with the gift of celibacy that is a great gift, and something they are called to. Celibacy is not a gift that can be demanded, nor is it anything other than a man made discipline as instituted in the R.C. Church.

Now to the issue above. The R.C. Diocesan spokeswoman, the official spokesperson for the diocese at that, has no idea what celibacy means. She is either misdirecting or is ill informed.

Put simply, celibacy means that one pledges that they will not marry. Now certainly, if one is not married one shouldn’t be engaging in sexual relations (the normal requirement of abstention from sexual relations applies to all unmarried persons). However, engaging in sexual relations and fathering a child is not breaking ones vow of celibacy. If Church officials had “forced him to marry” (something they cannot do — you can’t force someone to get married), or if he had chosen to marry Miss Soucier, then he would have broken his vow of celibacy. The statement: “This is not about a crime, to father a child. He certainly did break his vow of celibacy and that is a mistake to do that.” is wrong. He did not break his vow. Rather he sinned against chastity.