Celibacy Quote by Lillie Devereux Blake

Priestly celibacy has been guarded by the Church for centuries as a brilliant jewel, and retains its value undiminished even in our time when…

— Pope Paul VI

Again, as I had often met it in my own church, I was confronted with the Impurity of Women doctrine that seemed to preoccupy…

— Harper Lee

“Though I wholeheartedly supported celibacy at the start of my seminary career, my opinion changed as I made my way toward and through priesthood.”

— Charles Benedict

Jesus Christ never preached there should be celibate priests. The only reason the church has this is because it's a mechanism of power and…

— Alex Gibney

How deep a wound to morals and social purity has that accursed article of the celibacy of the clergy been! Even the best and…

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“We have no better materials to compound the priesthood of, than the mass of mankind, which corrupted as it is, those who receive orders…

— Jonathan Swift

When the parish priest rebuked him for his celibacy, saying it would lead him into debaucheryand sin, hesaid that a man who had to…

— Liam O'Flaherty

“as Barbara Tuchman, author of Distant Mirror, put it, “clerical celibacy was a joke.” Despite the previous ban on clerical marriages, nuns, monks, cardinals,…

— Charles River Editors

Everyone agrees the celibacy rule is just a Church law dating from the 11th century, not a divine command.

— Hans Kung

“The common mistake of the religious celibate has been to suppose that the highest spiritual life absolutely demands the renunciation of sexuality, as if…

— Alan Wilson Watts

“The following motto is written on the invitation to your first mass: ‘We don’t rule over your faith, we serve your joy.’ How did…

— Pope Benedict XVI

A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.

— Carl Sagan