A Question about Priests being married

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I’ve heard that they wouldn’t because they’re already in a married relationship with God, so it would be a sin, basically.

But then again, I had a priest at my parish who stopped priesthood instead to get married to his woman…
 
I don’t think most priest have the time or money for a family. The vocation is a demanding one and adding others to support make it unconvienent.
xdz said:
But then again, I had a priest at my parish who stopped priesthood instead to get married to his woman…
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During the seminary or after taking Holy Orders?
 
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I would suggest that since we have had many discussions about this on the forum, especially within the last year given the concern about the actions of some clergy, you might want to use search to find some of the many past threads on this topic.
 
The apostolic churches have never allowed priests to marry. Some of them, however, allow married men to be ordained as priests.
 
Almost all of them, in fact, allow ordination of married men, with some having required marriage prior to non-monastic ordination . . . but there’s this one fairly large church with other ideas 🤣😱😜
 
xdz said:
I’ve heard that they wouldn’t because they’re already in a married relationship with God, so it would be a sin, basically.
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It is not a sin. It is a discipline of the Latin Church.
In fact the Church does have married priests.
 
I never knew that… Thank you~
I was always taught that a priest should never marry as it was somewhat a sin or his bad in general…
 
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I think he has to go through a process first.
 
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xdz said:
I never knew that… Thank you~
I was always taught that a priest should never marry as it was somewhat a sin or his bad in general…
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For example, married Anglican clergy who become Catholics and get ordained as Catholic priests may remain married. If the wife dies they may not remarry.

Also in Eastern Catholic churches married men may become priests but if a single man becomes a priest he may not marry.
 
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xdz said:
I’ve heard that they wouldn’t because they’re already in a married relationship with God, so it would be a sin, basically.

But then again, I had a priest at my parish who stopped priesthood instead to get married to his woman…
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Nobody is sacramentally married to God. You need to marry a member of the opposite sex and then the marriage is consummated when you have sex.
 
TK421 said:
Nobody is sacramentally married to God. You need to marry a member of the opposite sex and then the marriage is consummated when you have sex.
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Nuns and consecrated virgins are considered “brides of Christ”. They often have a type of wedding ceremony when they take their vows, and get a ring to wear.

Also, the Blessed Virgin Mary was the spouse of the Holy Spirit. St. Maximilian Kolbe wrote on this in great detail.

In both of these cases, “spouse” is not meant in a literal manner (which is how Mary could also be Joseph’s spouse on earth). It’s a mystical relationship. Fr. Grondin explains it more here:


I note that priests are not considered spouses of God or spouses of the church or anything like that. As thistle said, the celibacy of priests is a discipline enforced by the Church for various reasons, one being that the Church decided priests should be like Christ and thus be single and chaste.
 
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They’re the spouse of the church because they’re standing in the place of Christ so they are supposed to be like him, the bridegroom, with the Church being the bride.

But I don’t think when they are ordained they go through a marriage ceremony like the nuns and consecrated virgins do.
 
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xdz said:
I was always taught that a priest should never marry as it was somewhat a sin or his bad in general…
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Priests in the apostolic churches (Catholic, Orthodox, and a couple of smaller ones may not marry, and never have been allowed to. However, for most of history in all churches, and in most today, married men have been ordained as priests.

[And there is a very rare exception in which widowed EC d EO priests with small children have been allowed to marry–nor for the priest’s benefit, but for that of the children.{rare as in, “I probably have enough fingers to count them all”]
 
One question, why when people talk about married priest they are against already ordained ones getting married? Is there a theological problem with that or something?
 
Priests have been barred from entering marriage since the first century.

I haven’t heard any serious proposals to allow this to change.

Per the RCC, priestly celibacy (as in not ordaining married men) is purely a matter of discipline, and not validity/sacramentality/whatever. VII explicitly affirmed the validity of the ordination of married men.
 
Oh ok, I didn’t know that. However, what I want I don’t understand is why? Why married men can be ordained but ordained men can’t marry?
 
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