-.jpg "Catholic priests in France: a celibate life?")
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The Catholic Church imposes drastic restrictions on those who serve her. Unlike monks, priests do not take a vow of chastity but are bound to celibacy and therefore to total abstinence. Yet, many priests have active sex lives and have heterosexual or homosexual romantic relationships. For this special feature documentary, French priests and their partners have agreed to speak about their double life.
Our reporters Alexandra Renard and Georges Yazbeck went to meet priests in love, who would like the Church to allow them to fully live their idyll in broad daylight, while retaining their priesthood.
We spoke to young priests in the making, as well as priests in clandestine relationships with a woman or a man.
No place for romantic love in the church
Priests who have broken with the vow of celibacy spoke of their struggle to live in “sin†and their joy in discovering the happiness of being in a couple or even in family, since some have children. Their partners, men or women, have also spoken about the forbidden and secret life they have led for years alongside a man from the web.
A terrible culture of secrecy
In France, most priests are sexually active. Half of them are said to be homosexuals. These members of the clergy face a double penalty.
Unlike the Orthodox Church or the Anglicans, the Roman Catholic Church has imposed celibacy on priests since the 12th century. This doctrine leaves a lot of room for the unsaid, for insular thought and a terrible culture of secrecy.
This same age-old culture is increasingly criticized for having helped protect those responsible for the sexual abuse of minors and adults within the Church.
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