Insight on the News
Celibacy Troubles
● The centuries-old celibacy rule for Roman Catholic priests is causing trouble again.
It should. Such a requirement is in direct conflict with the teachings of the Bible.
On December 23, the Vatican newspaper “L’Osservatore Romano,” pleading with priests not to abandon their ministry, said that every priest must “do the impossible to remain at his post.”
That “impossible” requirement actually stems from the falling away from true worship that began after the death of the apostles of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul foretold that one of the features of that apostasy would be “forbidding to marry.” Does that surprise you? Check it for yourself in any version of the Bible, at 1 Timothy 4:1-3. Obviously the Catholic Church has dropped the Bible standard in favor of its own, and that leads to trouble.
The article in “L’Osservatore” went on to say to those who are priests: “If you commit moral errors—you must not, but it may happen, because you too are weak—you have many remedies.” According to “Newsweek” (December 3, 1973), some priests, though remaining unmarried, are finding their own ‘remedy’ in intimate association with women and, at times, in sexual intercourse.
Of course, that is nothing new. Many Catholics have long been aware of priests who do it. But what especially bothers the church is, not the immorality of these priests, but the fact that now many are leaving the priesthood for marriage. The number of priests has dropped by about 20,000 in the past three years.
Fear of Crime
● More and more the United States is becoming a terror-ridden “armed camp.”
Fear pervades “all levels of U.S. society,” according to a Gallup poll taken in 1973. One person in three in the big cities and one in five in the suburbs has been mugged or robbed, or has been the victim of burglars or has had his property vandalized in the past year. Four persons in ten are afraid to walk alone at night even in their own neighborhood.
Some people believe that the way to cope with violence is to be ready to use violence in return. As a result, in Detroit, the nation’s top crime city, it has been estimated that there are 500,000 handguns, one for every third man, woman and child. The situation is not much different elsewhere. People live in fear.
Is that what you want? You cannot change the world around you, but you can change your way of dealing with it. The truly safe thing is to ‘beat your instruments of warfare into implements of peace, and to learn war no more.’ But why? Because that is what the Creator tells us to do. If wrongs are committed against his servants, God assures us that he will repay.—Isa. 2:2-4; Rom. 12:17-19.
True, people around you may want to take matters into their own hands. But if you care about life, which makes more sense—to pay attention to the counsel of the Source and Sustainer of life, or to imitate mortal men?
Self-Interest Rules
● Experts in the large metal-consuming nations see trouble ahead, in the form of an exorbitant price boost in vital metals.
One official advocates stockpiling now so as to have bargaining power in dealing with the metal-producing countries. “With it,” he said, “you don’t let these bandits hold you up.”
The immediate cause for excitement is that the nations supplying vital aluminum ore are planning to establish an organization similar to the Organization of Oil Exporting countries, which hiked oil prices to an all-time high. Other organizations of copper- and tin-producing countries already exist.
Calling the producing nations “bandits” is like the ‘pot calling the kettle black.’ Consider the position of those nations. Workmen in most of them have subsisted on very low wages. And they remember also how the larger nations have often exploited them.
This situation is but another evidence that this world’s economic system is permeated with selfishness. Self-interest rules.
Actually, these distresses are signs that this present system is soon to be superseded by God’s kingdom. Under its rule, says God’s prophet, “righteousness is what the inhabitants of the productive land will certainly learn.” What a welcome change that will be!—Isa. 26:9.