The Problem of Celibacy in the Clerical Films of Bob Quinn

In the wake of myriad revelations of clerical abuse and its cover-up by Church authorities in the last two decades, the question of mandatory priestly celibacy has been largely relegated to discourses surrounding child sexual abuse that are frequently informed by the misguided perception that clerical sexual continence leads to paedophilia. However before the clerical abuse crisis came to the fore in the late 1990s, and at least since the time of the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), the necessity and practicality of compulsory chastity for Catholic clergy has been a contested issue within the ecclesial and public spheres in Ireland.