Celibacy vow in the Catholic Church has to go

Conspiracy of Silence is my first feature film for the cinema and a subject matter that I feel very passionate about. The film is ‘inspired’ by real events and I am privileged that so many Catholic priests came forward to tell me their stories. I interviewed priests in the UK, Ireland and Italy.

When I toured film festivals all over the world with the movie one of the most frequent questions I was asked by journalists was ‘Why did you pick such a difficult subject matter for your first film?’ My answer was a simple one: The subject matter chose me. As a practicing Catholic, I often wondered why priests were not allowed to be married – after all, I thought, they must have the same sexual urges as the rest of us, surely? As a young man, I naively
assumed that they must have been given some ‘special power’ by God that muted these natural desires.

When I first began researching the subject for the film I was astonished to find out that celibacy was introduced in the 12th century – before that priests were allowed to be married. I also discovered that over the past twenty five years at least 100,000 priests (it’s difficult to get accurate figures) had left the priesthood – not all of them, of course, left to be married but a high percentage did. We all know that this hemorrhaging of the priesthood is unsustainable.

During my festival travels I had many moving experiences relayed to me from audience members during the Q&A sessions that often followed screenings. One of the most telling happened in Rome. Following a screening of the movie, a man approached me and introduced himself as a catholic priest ‘from the Vatican’. He hugged me tightly with tears in his eyes and said: ‘Thank you, your film moved me so much. It’s time we had this debate in the Church. If we don’t, it will tear us apart. Because of my position I cannot comment publicly but I hope and pray that your film opens up the debate. This is a film every Catholic should see.’

In light of the most recent horrific child abuse revelations, prominent academics, theologians, journalists and even some in the medical profession have lined up to make the connection between celibacy and pedophilia. I am not qualified to comment on that but what I do feel is that celibacy must have a part to play somewhere along the line. The Church has always had an uneasy relationship with sex. For some reason the Catholic Church sees sex as shameful and something to be hidden, tucked away, not discussed. The problem with that is that human sexuality cannot be neatly boxed. It has to rear its head, as it were.

The celibacy issue will not go away. It is a time bomb waiting to go off and recent events would suggest that it has already exploded. Unless the Catholic Church deals with this most important and divisive subject I believe it will not see out the 21st century in any meaningful way.

I interviewed dozens of priests for this film and if, for no other reason, I owe it to them to make sure that their stories are told. Whether you love the movie or hate it – and I’ve had both reactions – I urge you to join in the debate. Enforced celibacy is no longer tenable in an organization that cannot practice it with any real conviction. I’m certainly not saying that all priests are having ‘sexual relations’ but a great many are. What I am saying, however, is that priests – like the rest of us – should have a choice. If a man wants to remain celibate that’s his decision. That way we will have a much healthier and much more respected priesthood. How can the Church allow married Anglican priests to become Catholic priests but not let ‘home-grown’ Catholic priests marry? It just doesn't make any sense.

Conspiracy of Silence is more than just an ‘issue-based’ film – it’s a film about love, about compassion, about humanity and about human failing. It’s a film that, on many levels, can appeal to all of us – Catholic or not. The big question is will the Catholic Church do anything about it?

www.conspiracyofsilence.co.uk