Jesus Christ lived a celibate life. It is appropriate that priests be likened to Christ in this lifestyle. Celibacy is not a point of doctrine but a church discipline.

Celibacy is a sign of contradiction, as are the other priestly promises of poverty and obedience. In a world which prizes power, wealth and sex above all things obedience, poverty and chastity (the opposite virtues) are a powerful witness that there is more to life than the pursuit of pleasure there is another dimension.

Chastity enables a person to serve the whole community; it liberates the priest from the responsibilities of family life and makes him fully available to the Church, able to move from role to role and place to place quickly and without ties.

The practicalities of a priest's life make it almost impossible to reconcile with family duties. A priest must be available 24 hours a day; share in people's crises; hear their innermost thoughts, feelings and confessions. In addition priests earn less than £1300 per year, not enough to support children, and can often be moved 5-10 times in their first 15 years of ministry.

Celibacy is not an imposition, it is a free choice made by a man after seven years of seminary training and discernment. It is chosen by the priest.

To those who say that regular instances of priests breaking the vow of celibacy mean the rule should be abolished, one can reply that even more regular lapses by married men in keeping their vows occur and no one suggests frequent cases of adultery should mean marriage is abolished!

Recruitment to the priesthood and celibacy do not appear to be linked. In the Church of Scotland, where there is no celibacy rule, the number of applicants to the ministry dropped by 70% between 1992 and 1999.