So long, Father Cutie

Oh well. "Father Oprah"–who would really want that nickname?–has gone and left us for the Episcopalians. Forced to choose between love and ministry in the Roman Catholic Church, I guess he chose the former.

And how many of Miami's Catholics do you think will follow him?

One priest with a girlfriend is hardly reason to abandon mandatory celibacy, but at some point Catholics–including our bishops–are going to have to ask ourselves: Are we going to allow ourselves to be diminished throughout the world just because of a archaic rule we refuse to give up? I mean, it's not like we're rejecting the Trinity here.

It's long past time to relax the requirement that all priests be celibate. Let those called to it choose it. But mandatory celibacy is not worth sacrificing so many skilled ministers, much less our identity as a sacramental church.