Sins of the fathers
Sir: For one moment I had hoped that Andrew Brown, in his article on the next Pope (Hume? A Czech? Or an undry Mar- tini?, 25 April), might be a rare exception among modern writers who impoverish our language with their promiscuous use of `celibacy' when they mean 'chastity'.
Monks and nuns take vows of chastity, promising to abstain from sexual inter- course. Roman Catholic priests take vows of celibacy, undertaking merely not to marry (cf. French celibataire meaning bach- elor or spinster).
Thus Catholic priests who keep a 'harem constantly replenished with virgins to min- imise the risk of Aids' may well be in a state of mortal sin but are certainly not breaking their vow of celibacy.
The hypocrisy lies not in priests behaving badly, but in a Church that insists on celi- bate priests, while turning a blind eye on those who live with their 'housekeeper' as man and wife, observing the letter but not the spirit of their vows.
W.J.N. Moore
Gold Croft, 91 Walkeshwar Road, Mumbai, India
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