Father Pierre, Most Popular Frenchman, Speaks out on Sexuality

10/27/05 -- In a book, Father Pierre, the most popular man in France along with football player Zinédine Zidane, admits to having had sexual relationships, contests celibacy for priests, advocates the ordination of women, and addresses homosexuality and the possibility for gays of raising children.

The work of this emblematic figure, renowned for his fighting for the poor, is entitled “My God…why?� and was released on Thursday. It will not please Rome.

For Father Pierre, 93, devoting one’s life to God « does not in any way remove the power of desire, and it has happened to me that I yielded to it temporarily. But I have never had a drawn-out relationship because I have not allowed sexual desire to take root. That would have led me to have a durable relationship with a woman, which was contrary to my choice of life�, Father Pierre confesses in this book written with sociologist Frédéric Lenoir.

Father Pierre, who had in the past admitted to having had a long platonic passion for a chorist, states in his book that he knows priests living together with a woman. “They remain good priests�, says Father Pierre, founder of the Emmaüs community, which consists of associations helping the poor and which has spread all over the world. According to the Father, celibacy for priests should no longer be mandatory.

In his book, he repeats that he favors the ordination of women, and that he has not yet heard a “decisive theological argument that demonstrates that such would be contrary to belief.�

In addition, Father Pierre “understands� “the sincere desire of numerous homosexual couples of having their love recognized by society.� He nonetheless suggests talking about homosexual “partnership� (alliance) rather than about “marriage�, an expression which “would create traumatism and strong social destabilization.�

[Full article]

[This article appeared in:

La Libre Belgique (“Free Belgium�), which is a French-language quality daily with Catholic roots. It was founded in 1884 and is published in Brussels. It sells around 60,000 copies a day. http://www.lalibre.be]

-- Translated by Cedric Ryngaert

Go to original article:

http://www.lalibre.be/article.phtml?id=10&subid=91&art_id=247807

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