CELIBATE FOR MEN, MARRIED TO GOD: THE MOTHERHOOD AND FATHERHOOD OF THE CONSECRATED PERSONS

Abstract

The African vision of life and family according to which, every son and daughter of the family must, in turn, become father and mother of a new family constitutes a resistance and a strong obstacle to religious life. It especially presents an African challenge to the religious vow of chastity and consecration for the Kingdom of God. The vow of chastity is not, as such, a vow against life, family, and begettingness. It is a vow for a new dimension of life, family and of new begettingness of human lives. Hence, the motherhood and fatherhood of the consecrated persons is a motherhood and fatherhood of the Kingdom of God. That is why, as celibate as they appear to be, they are all married to God for a parenthood of love and charity. As such, against a certain and an absolute African familial view of biological fecundity and birth, religious consecration sees human family, life and procreation from another perspective, that of love, charity and the gift of oneself for others.