Pope Francis is contemplating ending the celibacy requirement the Catholic Church imposes on its priests and nuns. The hue and cry over ending this “thousand year” tradition is deafening.

I have a brief thought on this. Those decriers are missing, with equally missed irony, the meaning of that thousand year tradition in a two thousand year old church.

For good or ill, celibacy has never been a universal requirement in the universal church. Get the smelling salts; some pseudo-traditionalists seem to need them.