Vatican Invites Hugh Hefner To Join Commission To Study Priestly Celibacy

Ricardo André Frantz

Just days after the U.N. Elected Saudi Arabia to its Women’s Rights Commission, the Vatican announced this week that Pope Francis has elected Hugh Hefner to its Commission to Study Priestly Celibacy.

“Electing Hugh Hefner to study whether or not members of the clergy should be able to get married is outrageous,” said Dunkan Weber, executive director of Vatican Watch. “It’s insane and morally reprehensible.”

But others like Father Richard Moya applauded the choice, telling EOTT that it was a strong move.

“I believe it is a great decision. Who better than Mr. Hefner to assist in studying whether the Church’s discrimination against priests is gross and systematic in law and in practice? Mr. Hefner knows what makes people happy, and the Church clearly does not, as seen in its declining vocations. Every priest must have no bride but the Church who makes all critical decisions on his behalf, controlling his life from ordination until death. The Church bans priests from getting married, having sex, and smiling. It is about time they reached out to more open minded specialists in the field of happiness.”

The “kingpin of unbridled joy” now becomes one of 45 members of the commission that will play an instrumental role in “promoting priests’ rights, documenting the reality of priests’ lives throughout the world, and shaping universal standards on clergy equality and the empowerment of religious.”