LE DROIT D'AIMER

"Your daddy is a priest."The words bounced around in Anne-Marie's head as she realised, then and there, what the dark family secret about her was.

Anne-Marie has now decided to tell her story - so that the children of priests will never again feel they have to remain silent. The book reads like a detective story, as the author goes in search of her roots, looking for all those who sought to keep the love of a man for a woman secret, caring nothing for the life of a child. My father is a priest, so what? Why should his child be forced to call him "godfather"; why should he not be allowed to bring up the daughter he loves? Why should a father not be allowed to love? This book offers us a lesson in happiness and an incredible love story that transcends the laws of men and the Church. Although it could have had a very different ending, in the end this love story resulted in a beautiful young woman. Today, Anne-Marie is a grandmother and only now has she decided to reveal her secret, to tell the Church what things are like for the many children worldwide born to priests and nuns, and to open its eyes to the reality of those in its orders. Spiritual guides they may be, but they are only human nonetheless. Priestly celibacy dates from 1074, when Pope Gregory VII decreed that all candidates for ordination must first take a vow of celibacy; but that means that no such vow existed before then. That was ten centuries after Christ - so why should such a law be permanent now? "Let them choose, if they wish, to love, marry, and have children. Let them live - they would be no less respected, and the Church would not be any the worse either, anything but. It would be greater, truer, and more just."