Re-examining the Catholic Church's celibacy rule

(CBS News) Celibacy of the clergy has been a part of the Roman Catholic tradition for centuries. So what are the chances, if any, that the Pope about to be chosen will heed any of the voices calling for that tradition to change? Our Sunday Morning Cover Story is reported now by Barry Petersen:

With Pope Benedict retired, many Catholics are hoping a new Pope may be a chance to rethink old doctrines, including one of the oldest and, in today's church, now one of the most controversial: celibacy.

"It's that call -- leave everything and follow me -- and if you do that you're not just a functionary providing religious services, you're someone whose whole life is at stake," said Chicago's Cardinal Francis George, who is now in Rome for the conclave.

"If you're going to lead the people in Christ's name, celibacy isn't absolutely necessary, but it is a sign that someone has left everything for the sake of the Lord," said Cardinal George.

Father John Fitzgibbons, president of Denver's Jesuit Regis University, says the church teaches that celibacy means a priest or a nun doesn't have family worries, and can instead focus solely on their religious work.

He says it offers the clergy "the ability, the wherewithal, the time, to give your energies to the people of God in a more concentrated, more useful way -- not distracted by family, kids, "any economic well-being, to some degree."

Complete coverage: Change at the Vatican

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills once studied for the Catholic priesthood, but quit over the demand for celibacy. He has written extensively, and critically, about the church, including the argument that having a family diminishes the quality of one's work.

"If you really believed that, you would never go to a married doctor," said Wills. "You would never elect a married president, because you would say, 'Oh, he just cares about his family, he doesn't care about the country, he doesn't care about my health." That's such a phony argument.

"Celibacy as the church has set up is unhealthy," Wills said. "Instead of uniting it with communities, it divides them from communities . . . by setting them apart."

For Christianity's first thousand years, priests could marry and have families. In fact, St. Peter -- the first pope -- had a wife

Celibacy became widespread in the 11th century, not so much because of scripture as for simple economics: Widows of married priests were claiming inheritance rights to church lands. Celibacy ended that . . . but not for everyone.

Some parish priests, like Denver's Father Chrysostom Frank, are members of the Church's Eastern Rite branch. His is the Russian Byzantine Catholic Church, which still reports to the Pope.

They can perform mass as a priest. But like Father Frank, they can marry and have children.

"Those two traditions have existed side by side for centuries," said Father Frank.

"Does that make you a better priest, a more understanding priest?" Petersen asked.

"I think for a lot of people, having someone who has experienced what they have experienced is a very useful thing, in terms of pastor counseling," Father Frank said.

The Roman Catholic Church is now welcoming already-married priests -- but only those converting from Protestant denominations.

And even the most devout Catholics, like Regis University faculty member Sister Peg Maloney, must cope with very human feelings.

As a nun, she said, she fell in love, and talked to her spiritual director. "Oh, I was very panicked," she told Petersen. She decided to stay celibate and in her order.

Bill Wisnewski chose another path. He was ordained at age 31. He later became friends with Pattie, and one day she found the courage to reach out.

"I said, 'We've got a serious problem here -- you know, I'm falling in love with you," Pattie laughed.

And what what his response? "He said, 'I feel the same way.'"

He left the priesthood, and they have been married 34 years ago. Now there are kids, and grandkids. Bill still acts as minister, as he did at his son's wedding -- but not as a priest in a Catholic Church he still loves and even now yearns to serve.

"If the next pope lifted the rule of celibacy, would you still go back?" Petersen asked.

"Yes, I would," Wisnewski replied.

Attitudes among Americans Catholics about celibacy are shifting. A new CBS News/New York Times poll shows 66 percent of them now favor letting priests marry.

Encouraging news for Sister Christine Schenk. She runs an Ohio-based advocacy group called FutureChurch -- as in, a future when celibacy would be optional.

"We can't divorce our plumbing from the totality of our person," she laughed. "Given the needs of the people of God, we could be opening ordination, rather than closing parishes."

Closing even as the population of American Catholics is growing (from 45 million in 1965 to 78 million in 2012, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate). But the number of priests is falling fast (from 58,632 in 1965 to 38,964 in 2012).

And those still in the Church are dealing with the pedophilia scandal.

"A lot of people would suggest that the issue of pedophilia is directly connected to the demand for celibacy," said Petersen. "What do you think?"

"I think it's incredibly wrong," replied Father Fitzgibbons. "There are people in every walk of life -- married life, single life, clerical life, religious life -- who are not healthy."

That said, candidates for Catholic priesthood, like the men at Mundelein Seminary outside Chicago, now go through a battery of psychological tests to assess their attitudes on sex and celibacy.

"I don't see it as, like, an offense to me to ask those questions -- they should be asking those questions," said Derek Ho.

"And you think a better priesthood will emerge from this?" asked Petersen.

"I certainly hope so, yeah. Because maybe they weren't questions that were asked in the past that should have been."

Like the others, Connor Danstrom pledged celibacy as part of his commitment. "This is not easy, but at the same time I can tell you from my own personal experience, that this life, this celibate life, dedicated to God, on the way to priesthood, has made me happier than anything else I've ever done in my life. And no one's forcing me to be here."

But some show a surprising new flexibility. Desmond Drummer said, "If the church changed this policy, this discipline, I would not be crying foul at all. I would embrace that."

"Would you still be celibate?" asked Petersen.

"Honestly, I will say this, I have no bones about this: If I had a chance to get married, I would. No doubt," said Drummer.

A flexibility that is one reason many American Catholics wonder how long celibacy will be a part of today's Church . . . or perhaps how soon it may become a fading tradition.

For more info:

• Regis University, Denver
• Future Church
• Mundelein Seminary, University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, Ill.
• "Why Priests? A Failed Tradition" by Garry Wills (Viking) | eBook