Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Celibacy Debate

Aired August 21, 2003 - 09:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: More than 160 priests from the archdiocese of Milwaukee have signed an open letter to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops calling for an end to the celibacy requirements for priests, and one of the principal authors was the Reverend Joseph Aufdermauer, who is with us live this morning in Milwaukee.
Father, good morning to you. Nice to have you here on AMERICAN MORNING.

It appears at the outset, the motive is quite clear: Priests should be married in the Catholic Church. How in the world do you think this can ever fly, either at the Conference of Bishops in this country or in the Vatican, Vatican City in Rome?

REV. JOSEPH AUFDERMAUER: Well, in our archdiocese, we are experiencing priest shortage. Five years ago, the archdiocese did a five-year plan on how to handle all of the parishes and the masses and the services with fewer priests, and the plan at that time was to close some parishes and ask the present, existing priests to do a little bit more work, and most priests are good, giving guys, so we all said sure, we'll do it.

Now last January, in our priest district, we're starting a second five-year plan, and it's becoming obvious that the solution for the next five years is the same as the past five years. We were talking about what parishes we can close. What parishes could have a lay parish director? What priests could take on more parishes. And it just occurred to me and to some of my brother priests that there has to be another solution that might help.

We're not naive enough to think that allowing diocesan priests to marry is going to be the magic bullet that's going to solve all of our problems. But with opening up of the diocesan clergy to married priests, we believe we would have more candidates for the priesthood.

Besides, you were asking about how do I imagine the church doing it, the church has already done it. Our holy father has allowed married priests in the church right now in the United States. By accepting the converts, primarily from Episcopalian who were priests and then converted to Catholicism, he has given his permission for them to marry. So we don't have exact numbers, but I'm told over a hundred to 200 of those converts are catholic priests functioning in the United States right now.

HEMMER: So I get your opinion on this now, father, and what you're saying is that you believe that the shortage of priests going back over, let's say, the past 25, 28 years, where your numbers indicate, if you go back about 1975, you have a 25 percent loss of priests here in the United States. If they have the option to marry, you're saying that those numbers will stop deteriorating and actually will start to get more support and will continue to grow?

AUFDERMAUER: Oh, absolutely, because that's what I'm hearing. Younger men that are thinking of the priesthood will say to me, I'd think about being a priest, but I'd also like to get married, and also some of my brother priests who have -- are priests, are leaving the priesthood because they say I would like the companionship of marriage. So I believe certainly....

HEMMER: There are opponents. The traditionalists will say forget about it. You know, at a time when the church has taken a number of hits in this country, now is time to strengthen the traditional values as opposed to going in a different direction. What impact do you believe the sex abuse cases are having on the population of priests as well.

AUFDERMAUER: I don't see that as a determining factor in all of this. To me, that's an entirely separate issue. And that wasn't any of our motivation in proposing this letter to see what our fellow diocesan priests were thinking.

HEMMER: The polling here, and I just want to confirm this. You are saying the polling you have, 50 percent of the priests you asked favor this and two-thirds of the lay people?

AUFDERMAUER: No, no, in the polling we did, 29 percent of the diocesan priests in the archdiocese of Milwaukee signed this letter that we forwarded to Bishop Wilton (ph) Gregory. Those are -- 29 percent signed the letter that we forwarded.

HEMMER: OK, but there was another poll that indicated across the country, 50 percent of the priests favored it?

AUFDERMAUER: Definitely.

Pardon?

HEMMER: Just trying to discern the difference between the polls that we're talking about, and I'm straight now.

Go ahead, father, final thought.

AUFDERMAUER: Sure. Oh, I just would hope that this letter would open up the discussion between priests, and lay people and bishops and the pope, that we could talk about the future of the church so that we could continue to have sacraments for our people, that people could have mass anointings, their confessions could be heard, because it's not being done with the shortage of priests right now.

HEMMER: You opened up the discussion for us today, and for that, we say thank you.

AUFDERMAUER: Wonderful. Oh, you're welcome. HEMMER: Father Joseph Aufdermauer, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired August 21, 2003 - 09:36   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: More than 160 priests from the archdiocese of Milwaukee have signed an open letter to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops calling for an end to the celibacy requirements for priests, and one of the principal authors was the Reverend Joseph Aufdermauer, who is with us live this morning in Milwaukee.
Father, good morning to you. Nice to have you here on AMERICAN MORNING.

It appears at the outset, the motive is quite clear: Priests should be married in the Catholic Church. How in the world do you think this can ever fly, either at the Conference of Bishops in this country or in the Vatican, Vatican City in Rome?

REV. JOSEPH AUFDERMAUER: Well, in our archdiocese, we are experiencing priest shortage. Five years ago, the archdiocese did a five-year plan on how to handle all of the parishes and the masses and the services with fewer priests, and the plan at that time was to close some parishes and ask the present, existing priests to do a little bit more work, and most priests are good, giving guys, so we all said sure, we'll do it.

Now last January, in our priest district, we're starting a second five-year plan, and it's becoming obvious that the solution for the next five years is the same as the past five years. We were talking about what parishes we can close. What parishes could have a lay parish director? What priests could take on more parishes. And it just occurred to me and to some of my brother priests that there has to be another solution that might help.

We're not naive enough to think that allowing diocesan priests to marry is going to be the magic bullet that's going to solve all of our problems. But with opening up of the diocesan clergy to married priests, we believe we would have more candidates for the priesthood.

Besides, you were asking about how do I imagine the church doing it, the church has already done it. Our holy father has allowed married priests in the church right now in the United States. By accepting the converts, primarily from Episcopalian who were priests and then converted to Catholicism, he has given his permission for them to marry. So we don't have exact numbers, but I'm told over a hundred to 200 of those converts are catholic priests functioning in the United States right now.

HEMMER: So I get your opinion on this now, father, and what you're saying is that you believe that the shortage of priests going back over, let's say, the past 25, 28 years, where your numbers indicate, if you go back about 1975, you have a 25 percent loss of priests here in the United States. If they have the option to marry, you're saying that those numbers will stop deteriorating and actually will start to get more support and will continue to grow?

AUFDERMAUER: Oh, absolutely, because that's what I'm hearing. Younger men that are thinking of the priesthood will say to me, I'd think about being a priest, but I'd also like to get married, and also some of my brother priests who have -- are priests, are leaving the priesthood because they say I would like the companionship of marriage. So I believe certainly....

HEMMER: There are opponents. The traditionalists will say forget about it. You know, at a time when the church has taken a number of hits in this country, now is time to strengthen the traditional values as opposed to going in a different direction. What impact do you believe the sex abuse cases are having on the population of priests as well.

AUFDERMAUER: I don't see that as a determining factor in all of this. To me, that's an entirely separate issue. And that wasn't any of our motivation in proposing this letter to see what our fellow diocesan priests were thinking.

HEMMER: The polling here, and I just want to confirm this. You are saying the polling you have, 50 percent of the priests you asked favor this and two-thirds of the lay people?

AUFDERMAUER: No, no, in the polling we did, 29 percent of the diocesan priests in the archdiocese of Milwaukee signed this letter that we forwarded to Bishop Wilton (ph) Gregory. Those are -- 29 percent signed the letter that we forwarded.

HEMMER: OK, but there was another poll that indicated across the country, 50 percent of the priests favored it?

AUFDERMAUER: Definitely.

Pardon?

HEMMER: Just trying to discern the difference between the polls that we're talking about, and I'm straight now.

Go ahead, father, final thought.

AUFDERMAUER: Sure. Oh, I just would hope that this letter would open up the discussion between priests, and lay people and bishops and the pope, that we could talk about the future of the church so that we could continue to have sacraments for our people, that people could have mass anointings, their confessions could be heard, because it's not being done with the shortage of priests right now.

HEMMER: You opened up the discussion for us today, and for that, we say thank you.

AUFDERMAUER: Wonderful. Oh, you're welcome. HEMMER: Father Joseph Aufdermauer, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com