Clerical Celibacy and the "Abominable Conspiracy"

We want you to rally to combat the abominable conspiracy against clerical celibacy. This conspiracy is spread daily and is promoted by profligate philosophers, some even from the clerical order. They have forgotten their person and office, and have been carried away by the enticements of pleasure. They have even dared to make repeated public demands to the princes for the abolition of that most holy discipline.

But it is disgusting to dwell on these evil attempts at length. Rather, We ask that you strive with all your might to justify and to defend the law of clerical celibacy as prescribed by the sacred canons, against which the arrows of the lascivious are directed from every side.

Pope Gregory XVI
Encyclical Mirari Vos, August 15, 1832