Rising trend of Catholic priests quitting priesthood: Could cancelation of celibacy be the solution?.

There seems to be a trend of more and more Roman Catholic priests quitting priesthood to live the life of laity. 

While there have been many of such cases around the world, cases in Cameroon, in recent times, easily come to mind. 

As the trend, which in years past was very rare, is picking steam, many analysts are questioning if the scrapping of celibacy obligation for Roman Catholic priests may be a panacea. 

The most recent case of a Roman Catholic priest who announced his intention to quit priesthood is that of Rev Fr Kennedy Akwo Ndu, priest of Mamfe Diocese of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province. He issued his resignation letter to the Bishop of Mamfe, Aloysius Fondong Abangalo, recently, asking for it to be submitted to Rome.

Fr Kennedy’s resignation from priesthood came closely on the heels of that of Rev Fr Dieudonne Akawung Tazisong, another priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mamfe, who, in February this year, was officially removed from the priesthood after gaining Pope Francis’ approval to quit.

In a February 20, 2023, pastoral letter, the Bishop of Mamfe, Aloysius Abangalo Fondong, had said Rev Fr Dieudonne Akawung Tazisong, had applied to get the Vatican’s official approval of him quitting priesthood.

The Bishop had confirmed the priest’s new status as a lay person, while urging Catholic Christians to pray that he remains faithful.

“Some time ago, Rev Fr Dieudonne Akawung Tazisong, priest of the Diocese of Mamfe, humbly requested from Pope Francis the dispensation from sacred celibacy and from all other obligations concerned with sacred ordination to the priesthood. In response, His Holiness, Pope Francis, through a rescript of dispensation, graciously granted the request,” Bishop Abangalo had stated.

“By this letter, therefore, I wish to bring to your notice that Rev Fr Dieudonne Akawung Tazisong, has been removed from the Clerical State,” he said, adding that he will no longer be permitted to perform any clerical duties on behalf of the church.

However, the Bishop did not say why Rev Akawung decided to quit his priestly duties, but called on Catholic Christians to pray that he remains “a proven son of the Church”.

Though it was not clear if Fr Kennedy and Fr Akawung left priesthood because of the celibacy clause, given that Fr Kennedy raised issues of power-mongering, love for money and gossips, the case of Rev Fr George Ngalame, erstwhile financial secretary of the Buea Diocese, who is said to have been redeployed to the Kumba Diocese, point to the marriage direction.

In February 2022, Rev Fr Ngalame was spotted in a video that went viral on social media, proposing to his girlfriend, Eta Obi Jamila. The video was reportedly shot in the United States of America.

The marriage proposal and engagement were said to have taken place during the 30th birthday celebration of the lady.

In the video, Fr Ngalame, who has been living in the US for some time now, was seen in a blue suit and with one knee on the ground, stretching a ring to Eta Obi Jamila, as family members and friends watched, apparently in disbelief. 

Eta Obi Jamila had confirmed her engagement in a Facebook post on February 9, 2022, describing the twin occasion as “fabulous”.

News of Fr Ngalame proposing marriage to a woman and engaging was received by many on social media with mixed feelings. 

While some said it was his inalienable right to follow his heart and get married, others averred that he should have completed the process of quitting the church as stipulated by the Canon Law, before taking such a step.

Lambert Mbom, who schooled with Fr Ngalame at the Bishop Rogan Minor Seminary in Buea, was quoted as having said people were trying to give Fr Ngalame a bad name in order to hang him. Mbom said Ngalame had not been performing priestly duties for some time and so he was not in the priesthood anymore.

It was mooted then that Fr Ngalame had been in the process of laicisation, a phase in Catholic doctrine whereby a priest renounces his priestly duties and becomes a normal Christian. In Catholic doctrine, it is when this process is completed that a priest is permitted to marry.

However, given that the process is a lengthy one, it remains unclear if Fr Ngalame’s process of laicisation has been completed. 

The case of Fr Ten Horn, others

Roman Catholic priests who served in Cameroon, left priesthood and later got married may not be many, but cases abound. 

One of such is Rev Fr Sifrinus Germardus Ten Horn, a Dutch, whose last station was at the St. Joseph Parish, Andek, Ngie Subdivision, Momo Division of the North West Region. Fr Ten Horn was also a priest in Wum, Menchum Division of the North Wwst Region in 1986 when the Lake Nyos disaster occurred. He was one of the first persons to get to Nyos after the disaster.

Sometime in the 2000s, while serving as priest in Ngie Parish, Fr Ten Horn quit priesthood and later got married. He is currently the Executive Director of SNV Cameroon.

Another case is that of Rev Fr Ankiambom Emmanuel, who hails from Boyo Division of the North West Region. After having been ordained priest in the Bamenda Archdiocese, Fr Ankiambom served for three years and was sent to Rome for further studies.

However, after his studies in Rome, Fr Ankiambom is reported to have changed his mind and decided to quit priesthood. He is said to have followed the process of laicisation and left the Church. He is said to have later gotten married to a lady who was in the process of becoming a nun in the Roman Catholic Church. 

Laicisation no easy process

Though Roman Catholic priests may quit priesthood to become laity, the process is not an easy one.

In October 1980, the Vatican, under Pope John Paul II, tightened rules against priests marrying. He equally issued new rules for releasing dissatisfied Roman Catholic priests from their vows of celibacy. This was intended to reduce the number of men permitted to leave the priesthood to marry.

Pope John Paul II stopped reviewing applications for priests to be "laicised," or allowed to become Roman Catholic laymen, until the situation could be studied and new procedures drawn up. Under Roman Catholic doctrine, a man who leaves the priesthood is automatically excommunicated unless he has received the Vatican's approval.

During the 15-year pontificate of John Paul's predecessor, Pope Paul VI, more than 32,000 requests for laicisation were received. Of the number, 12,000 came from American priests alone. 

However, we gathered that Pope John Paul II did not grant any laicisation requests from priests. This, some pundits within the church aver, was to prevent the phenomenon of priests moving in and out of priesthood at their whims and caprices.   

Longstanding debates over celibacy for Catholic clergy 

Meanwhile, there has been longstanding debates over the Roman Catholic Church’s doctrine for priests and nuns not to get married.

In 2017, some 11 retired priests from Germany had called for an end to celibacy for Catholic priests. This was in an open letter, written in review of their 50 years as clergy. 

Among the men was Franz Decker, a retired priest who, for over a decade, led the Catholic Relief Service in Cologne, Germany. 

"We believe that requiring that every man who becomes a priest to remain celibate is not acceptable. We think, every Catholic should be allowed to choose if they would rather be celibate or not, regardless of whether they want to work as priests or not-just like in the Protestant Church or the Orthodox Church,” Decker is quoted as having said.

Some proponents against the celibacy doctrine say it distances priests from the marriage experience of life, compromising their moral authority in the pastoral sphere.

Its defenders, nonetheless, argue that the Church's moral authority is rather enhanced by a life of total self-giving in imitation of Christ, a practical application of the Vatican II teaching that "Man cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself".

It should also be recalled that in 1970, nine German theologians, including Joseph Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI), signed a letter calling for a new discussion of the law of celibacy, though refraining from making a statement as to whether the law of celibacy should in fact be changed.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis had shared his views on celibacy, and the possibility of church discussion on the topic, when he was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Brazil. It is recorded in the book, On Heaven and Earth, a record of conversations conducted with a Buenos Aires rabbi. 

He had commented that celibacy "is a matter of discipline, not of faith. It can change" but added: "For the moment, I am in favour of maintaining celibacy, with all its pros and cons, because we have ten centuries of good experiences rather than failures...Tradition has weight and validity." He said that now the rule must be strictly adhered to, and any priest who cannot obey it "has to leave the Ministry."

In a conversation with Bishop Erwin Krautler about mandatory celibacy on April 4, 2014, the Pope also spoke about a possible mechanism for a change, starting with national bishop conferences. 

“These conferences would seek and find consensus on reform and we should then bring up our suggestions for reform in Rome…,” he had said.

Explaining that he could not take everything in hand personally from Rome, he had noted: “We local Bishops, who are best acquainted with the needs of our faithful, should be ‘corajudos,’ “that is ‘courageous’ in Spanish”, and make concrete suggestions...It was up to the bishops to make suggestions, the Pope said again.

Counter arguments

There have also been several arguments in favour of celibacy for Roman Catholic priests and nuns.

In his book, ‘Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit’, Garry Wills argued that the imposition of celibacy among Catholic priests played a pivotal role in the cultivation of the Church as one of the most influential institutions in the world. In his discussion concerning the origins of the said policy, Wills mentioned that the Church drew its inspiration from the ascetics, monks who devote themselves to meditation and total abstention from earthly wealth and pleasures in order to sustain their corporal and spiritual purity, after seeing that its initial efforts in propagating the faith were fruitless.

A staunch Roman Catholic faithful in Bamenda, who did not want to be named, arguing in favour of celibacy, noted that: “Even in religious denominations where their clergy are allowed to marry, we still find some of them being promiscuous, keeping girlfriends here and there”.   

“Some pastors with wives are still unable to keep their trousers zipped. So cancellation of celibacy with the Roman Catholic Church is no panacea. When a clergyman wants to be faithful to his vows and dedication to serve God, he will do so, wife or no wife,” he stated.