The Vatican announced last month a plan to make it easier for disillusioned Anglicans, who feel their church has become too liberal, to convert to Catholicism. The plan allows for Anglican priests, including those who are married, to also convert to Catholicism. This stirred speculation that the age-old rule of celibacy for Catholic priests could be rescinded. Not so, says the Vatican. The married priests will join the Personal Ordinariates, the structure set up for ex-Anglicans. They won’t have to be celibate, but unmarried priests who convert to Catholicism and are ordained will have to adhere to the celibacy rule. Only celibate men will be admitted to the Roman Catholic priesthood, but the admission of married Anglican priests will be on a case-by-case basis decided on by the pope. Former Anglican bishops, including married ones, will be able to lead groups of former Anglicans within the Catholic Church, but the bishops will also have to be ordained within the Catholic priesthood. So, it seems the bishops will have to be celibate, even if they’re married, or choose not to be the ministers of their congregations. [Reuters]

It was about a year ago that I realized it was time to just make a commitment.

If I had a checklist for where I was in my life, it would have looked pretty good:  late 30s, living in Manhattan, freelance writer, founder of an improv school, volunteering for an organization dedicated to creating a better future, plenty of good friends – all dimensions accounted for.

Well almost.  It was everything but “a man.”

I was one of those “date a few times and then be inseparable for two years” people.  When I moved to NYC in 2001, “Sex and the City” was at its peak. That show and its promise of the perfect city life for a young single woman was a factor in me moving from LA.  I know, it’s sad. But it just shows how deep and powerful the desire to find—and how much fun it is to look for— that one guy really is.

Could you go a year without sex? By choice?  Taking a 12-month vow of chastity, writer Hephzibah Anderson did just that and wrote all about it for the U.K.‘s The Guardian. Taking the vow shortly after another relationship ended, Anderson says: “I’d turned 30 a few months before taking my vow, and among other things was looking for a fresh way of pursuing love into that new decade,” explaining, “I’d had enough sex without love; maybe it was time to look for love without sex?” For her, that meant a year of chastity. She writes:

It was a drastic response, but in the weepy aftermath of one more failed liaison, that was what made it so appealing. My year would start not from the time I’d last had sex, but from the day I made my decision. After all, I’ve had dry spells that have lasted longer than 12 months. It was the choosing that was crucial. Might it change the kind of men I attracted and my response to them? Would it enable me to fall back in love with romance? Would I be able to last 12 months?

After the jump, read some of Anderson’s thoughts, observations, and lessons from her deliberate celibacy and find out if she indeed lasted the full year.

The night’s going great, you can’t believe you’re hitting it off so well on a first date, he’s a great kisser, you take him home…

Whatever you do, don’t sleep with him.

Stop the presses! Yesterday, the blogosphere went bananas over a story that Katy Perry had taken a vow of celibacy for 2009. Well, I just got off the phone with the single sexpot (who recently broke up with Gym Class Heroes’ Travis McCoy), and she laughed: “Celibate for a whole year? I’d rather die!” We hear ya’, Katy! The self-proclaimed “prankster” sighed and said that she wished the media understood her sense of humor. Miss Perry still swears, “Yes, I kissed a girl!” While there’s no confirmation on if she liked it, she’s very happy about the Grammy nomination that she received for Best Female Pop Vocal.

“So let me get this straight? You’ve been a stripper for the past eight years and you’ve never slept with anyone during that entire time?” Blair, my co-worker at the strip club, asked.

“I know, it sounds really weird,” I said. “I just haven’t.  Maybe its guilt from my Italian Catholic upbringing.”

“Kiersten, how is that possible? Come on, that can’t be true,” Blair replied.

Over a decade after Britney claimed she was saving herself for marriage, the Jonas Brothers, a popular teeny-bopper boy band, have decided to take a vow of celibacy too. The trio of short, dark, and handsome teens told Details Magazine that they even bought rings to commemorate their commitment to chastity from Disney World and Tiffany’s. (How punk rock!) Although it’s not actually working as kryptonite for their hordes of screaming girl groupies, the Christian rockers turned pop stars, who are now owned by Disney, want to stay shining examples of purity.  Their tour director, Rob Brenner, who had worked with Spears, sees abstinence as a way to keep the boys focused and grounded, while avoiding the pitfalls (i.e. drugs, pregnancy, general craziness) of other stars who make it big when they’re young.