A myth about celibacy

On an afternoon programme on Newstalk yesterday a priest commented that celibacy gives a priest more time to do his work.

What an insult to my parents. I have seldom encountered a priest who has worked as hard as my late parents. It is an amazing myth that few seem to challenge. Certainly my parents never had the number of holidays priests seem to take. Of course it is dangerous to generalise but to say that celibacy gives one more time to work is simply not true. It is akin to saying that if there were no school examinations young people would develop a love for learning - nonsense. There is nothing that focuses the mind better than deadlines.

Not for a moment am I making a general statement saying that priests don't work. Of course there are hard-working priests. I have been misquoted on this before. But I am saying that in my 34 years as a priest I have come across far too many priests who simply don't know what it means to do a day's work five days a week.

It is another myth to say there is a shortage of priests in Ireland. Maybe there are too many. And I can give you chapter and verse on this point.