The hashtag began after the priest read a tweet from comedian Joe Rogan, a frequent critic of the Catholic Church. Rogan tweeted on March 6 the question: "At what point are we going to realize that forced celibacy is unnatural and unhealthy?"
Ayre, the pastor of Holy Family Notre Dame parish in Port Alberni, British Columbia, lamented that authentic human sexuality has been misrepresented in popular culture today, and that the importance of sexual love has been over exaggerated.
The culture has "this overemphasis on sex, like it's the 'end all, be all' of life," said Ayre. "When you see something like Joe Rogan's tweet, they are trying to tear down the Church to its level."
Society, he said, considers celibacy an impossibility, and views celibates as people sexually repressed or afraid of marriage. Rather than repressing their sexuality, he said priests "are actually sexually free in a good way… living our sexuality in a beautiful healthy way."
Additionally, he said celibacy is an opportunity to sacrifice a good aspect of creation, not a window to escape from marriage. He said the sacrifice, though, doesn't mean that sexuality is forgotten.
"Sexually, I'm a man, and I'm always living that out, but I'm just not acting on a particular aspect of what I'm created for. I'm giving that up for a greater good."