Sir, - In his letter on Cork County Council's motion urging the Catholic Church to press for optional celibacy, the Rev Michael Manning claims that Pope John Paul II has insisted that clerical celibacy was ordained by Christ.
He overlooks the fact that in addition to the Roman (Latin) rite, where the discipline is in effect, there are seven Eastern Catholic rites where the discipline varies.
In 1890, Latin bishops in North America, fearful that the faithful would be scandalised by the presence of a married Catholic clergy in their midst, prevailed on the Vatican to ban Eastern-rite married priests in North America. As a consequence of such shortsightedness, thousands of Ruthenian- or Ukrainian-rite Catholics defected.
Last September the ban was lifted in response to Vatican II's directive that the Eastern Churches should return to their own traditions in cases where they had departed from them. Also, it was pointed out that since 1980 the prevailing Roman-rite Church in the United States now has married priests, mostly former Episcopalians, "without scandal to the faithful." - Yours, etc., E. Leo McManus,
Venice, Florida, USA.