ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how respective moralities have been constructed and negotiated by the papacy of John Paul II and priests who have sexually intimate friendships. It shows how the papacy constructs etymologies to establish its claim that celibacy is an essential tradition, which are concomitantly rhetorical representations of a fixed morality. The chapter analyses the idiomatic constructions of priests with 'friends' in which they informally challenge the etymological ploys of the papacy with alternative readings of tradition, representations that, in turn, create new moralities. In the Roman Catholic priesthood, membership of this categorical group is officially confined to males who observe perpetual continence in celibacy. Concomitantly, these priests situate the papacy at the margins of their lives by skilfully negotiating limitations to their friendships through the use of shifters. The papacy goes about making this total moral vision by gathering together past and privileged claims of previous papacies.
