Tragedy of the Church Discipline or a Controversy over "Dead Wife"

The article analyses and, partly, criticises argumentation of the book Tragédie celibátu – mrtvá manželka ("Tragedy of celibacy—dead wife") by L. P. Baláž and M. Lajcha (Kľak, 2018). It observes the rhetorical and apologetical nature of the book and reveals its clericalist implications and presents different views on how to deal with this issue. It remarks that the refusal of marriage and the preference for sexual asceticism was not only a contribution of Platonic and Stoic philosophy but also merit and a genuine feature of early Christianity itself. It points out that the concept of longing to become a priest, which according to the authors should entitle a married man to get the ordination, has a clericalist backdrop. Finally, it questions the way how the authors tried to make the abolishing of mandatory celibacy a part of the conservative agenda by references to the very rigid features of Catholic conjugal ethics and the common gender stereotypes.

Keywords: Ordination; Marriage; Celibacy; Sexuality; Asceticism