By Fr. Kelvin Ugwu, MSP
This may sound surprising, but is the fact. With science, a priest can have biological child(ren) without breaking his vows of celibacy in that strict sense.
How is this possible?
Let’s talk about IVF
In vitro fertilization, commonly called IVF, has been in use since 1978 when the first IVF baby, Louise Brown, was born in the United Kingdom. Since then, more than eight million babies worldwide have been born through IVF.
With IVF, fertilization happens in the laboratory. An egg is retrieved from a woman’s ovary. Sperm is introduced to fertilize the egg in a controlled environment. The resulting embryo is then transferred into the woman’s uterus.
A woman can therefore become pregnant without ever having sexual intercourse. All that is required is sperm. And sperm today can be obtained legally from sperm banks where donors are screened and catalogued by physical traits, medical history, blood group, height, education and more.
So for church people, make una no vex.
Biologically speaking, a woman can be a virgin in the strict sense of never having had sexual intercourse and still become pregnant through artificial insemination or IVF. You may debate the ethics. But you cannot deny the science.
Now to the men.
In Dan Brown’s novel Angels and Demons, he tells a fictional story of a Pope who fathered a child without breaking his vow of celibacy. The line in the novel suggests that science allowed him to experience fatherhood without violating his vow.
How?
By providing sperm that was used to fertilize an egg in a laboratory, after which the embryo was implanted into a woman.
Fiction, yes. But scientifically accurate.
Sperm can also be retrieved medically without sexual intercourse or masturbation. Urologists perform procedures such as testicular sperm extraction and percutaneous epididymal sperm aspiration. These are standard fertility procedures used for men who cannot ejaculate normally or who have blockages. The retrieved sperm can then be used for IVF or intracytoplasmic sperm injection, where a single sperm is injected directly into an egg.
It is also true that some men experience nocturnal emission, commonly called wet dreams, where semen is released during sleep. The body has natural mechanisms for releasing accumulated sperm.
What does all this mean?
It means a man can father a child without ever touching a woman sexually. And a woman can conceive without ever engaging in sexual intercourse.
Virgin pregnancy is possible, but the case of Mary in the bible was far more than Virgin pregnancy. And since we have cleared all these, we shall now look at the case of Mary.
This is why you should not miss the next part.
#PurestPurity
