From CathNews: Polish priests want to marry

Most Polish priests favour an end to celibacy and twelve percent say they are already in a relationship with a woman, a survey has found.

The research has dealt a blow to the country’s reputation as a champion of traditional Catholic values, the UK Telegraph reports.

A survey of over 800 priests carried out by Professor Josef Baniak, a sociologist specialising in religious affairs, found that 53 percent would like to have a wife, while 12 percent admitted that they were involved in a relationship. A further 30 percent said that they had had a sexual relationship with a woman.

Professor Baniak concluded from earlier research that the desire to have a relationship and a family was one of the key reasons for priests leaving the priesthood.

His latest research echoes an earlier survey carried out by the Tygodnik Powszechny newspaper. The conservative publication, aimed at Catholic intellectuals, found that as many as 60 percent of priests wanted the right to marry.

Professor Baniak’s survey, however, has come under fire from the Church. Bishop Wojciech Polak, chairman of the Church’s Vocations Council, described it as “full of generalisations”, adding that he found the “conclusions hard to agree with.”

Bishop Polak must not have access to the books and records as the auxiliary bishop of Gniezno. He’s obvioulsy missed the priests who have long-term “housekeepers,” have left to marry, have committed suicide because they cannot reconcile their conflicted relationships, or who have dumped their housekeeper and her (really their) children on the dioceses’ doorstep.

Of course “new trends” in Polish seminaries will change the balance. Perhaps Bishop Polak is concentrating on those changes.

More from Bishop Polak in Catholic Church in Poland reports sharp drop in vocations. Methinks that the Bishop has his fingers in his ears and is signing a hymn very loudly.