Celibacy mystery

Letters and articles in The Scotsman about celibacy among the clergy in the Church of Rome are timely and welcome. I have always been puzzled by the insistence on the celibacy of the priesthood.

In the early church priests would normally be married and have children, and Jesus had many followers who were women. In the Letters of the New English Bible we may read "Better to be married than burn with vain desire" (1 Corinthians 7: 9) and later "Our leader, therefore, or bishop, must be above reproach, faithful to his one wife, sober, temperate" (1 Timothy 3: 2).

It would be good to see a letter or article from an apologist for the Church of Rome as to why, when and how this rule was imposed.

PETER MURRAY SPENCER

Castleroy Crescent

Dundee