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Matt_CL
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Fides, thanks for posting.
Always inspiring hearing how a priest/bishop has cherished the call to life-long celibacy and utilized that calling to further his vocation in the image of Our Lord.
Always inspiring hearing how a priest/bishop has cherished the call to life-long celibacy and utilized that calling to further his vocation in the image of Our Lord.
T
The_Old_Medic
Guest
It is wonderful that a Priest or Bishop truly sees celibacy as a gift. But, this is not universal with the Roman Catholic Church, not has it always been the requirement of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Eastern Rite Roman Catholic Churches have no requirement of celibacy for their priests. These are not Orthodox, they are an integral part of the Roman Catholic Church, and their priests have full permission from the pope to be ordained after they have been married. In fact, in the Eastern tradition, the vast majority of the priests do marry, and they do have children.
It was the norm for all priests AND Bishops to be married in the early church. ALL of the Apostles were married, Jesus chose only married men to be his apostles. Therefore, I believe than an argument could be made that we are going AGAINST the example of Jesus, when we require that our priests not be allowed to marry. After all, had Jesus wanted an example of chastity for his chosen representatives, he could have and would have chosen unmarried men.
This requirement is NOT God’s law, it is the Churches law. Therefore, it can be changed, and I suspect that before too long, a new Pope will come along, another John XXIII, and shake the church to its foundations again. He will state that married men are to be preferred as Priests.
I would personally much rather have married Priests, than actively homosexual Priests. I have nothing against homosexuals, but celibacy includes their sexual acts too. Yet a variety of surveys have demonstrated that the majority of men being ordained in the USA are homosexuals, and that the majority of them are sexually active. In fact, several seminaries were actively chasing our heterosexual men (including St. John’s, the primary seminary for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles). Pope John Paul II, was attempting to get that changed, and to bring all North American Seminaries under true teachings of the church, but he became too sick to follow through on that. Unfortunately, Pope Benedict XVI has not pursued that matter with the same vigor.
Of course, I come into this from a different perspective. My maternal grandfather was an active Protestant Minister for over 55 years. I have seen that having a family in no way impedes a man from devoting their time and talents to God and to the Church.
I will make a prediction. Within 25 years (by 2035), most married Permanent Deacons will be ordained as Priests, and the majority of seminarians (at least in North America, Africa and Europe) will be married before they are ordained. If the church does not do this, they will have no Priests to minister to the faithful.
Religious Priests and Brothers will continue to take vows of celibacy. But the ordinary, garden variety Parish Priest will not.
The Eastern Rite Roman Catholic Churches have no requirement of celibacy for their priests. These are not Orthodox, they are an integral part of the Roman Catholic Church, and their priests have full permission from the pope to be ordained after they have been married. In fact, in the Eastern tradition, the vast majority of the priests do marry, and they do have children.
It was the norm for all priests AND Bishops to be married in the early church. ALL of the Apostles were married, Jesus chose only married men to be his apostles. Therefore, I believe than an argument could be made that we are going AGAINST the example of Jesus, when we require that our priests not be allowed to marry. After all, had Jesus wanted an example of chastity for his chosen representatives, he could have and would have chosen unmarried men.
This requirement is NOT God’s law, it is the Churches law. Therefore, it can be changed, and I suspect that before too long, a new Pope will come along, another John XXIII, and shake the church to its foundations again. He will state that married men are to be preferred as Priests.
I would personally much rather have married Priests, than actively homosexual Priests. I have nothing against homosexuals, but celibacy includes their sexual acts too. Yet a variety of surveys have demonstrated that the majority of men being ordained in the USA are homosexuals, and that the majority of them are sexually active. In fact, several seminaries were actively chasing our heterosexual men (including St. John’s, the primary seminary for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles). Pope John Paul II, was attempting to get that changed, and to bring all North American Seminaries under true teachings of the church, but he became too sick to follow through on that. Unfortunately, Pope Benedict XVI has not pursued that matter with the same vigor.
Of course, I come into this from a different perspective. My maternal grandfather was an active Protestant Minister for over 55 years. I have seen that having a family in no way impedes a man from devoting their time and talents to God and to the Church.
I will make a prediction. Within 25 years (by 2035), most married Permanent Deacons will be ordained as Priests, and the majority of seminarians (at least in North America, Africa and Europe) will be married before they are ordained. If the church does not do this, they will have no Priests to minister to the faithful.
Religious Priests and Brothers will continue to take vows of celibacy. But the ordinary, garden variety Parish Priest will not.
F
FidesSpesCarita
Guest
2 thingsIt is wonderful that a Priest or Bishop truly sees celibacy as a gift. But, this is not universal with the Roman Catholic Church, not has it always been the requirement of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Eastern Rite Roman Catholic Churches have no requirement of celibacy for their priests. These are not Orthodox, they are an integral part of the Roman Catholic Church, and their priests have full permission from the pope to be ordained after they have been married. In fact, in the Eastern tradition, the vast majority of the priests do marry, and they do have children.
It was the norm for all priests AND Bishops to be married in the early church. ALL of the Apostles were married, Jesus chose only married men to be his apostles. Therefore, I believe than an argument could be made that we are going AGAINST the example of Jesus, when we require that our priests not be allowed to marry. After all, had Jesus wanted an example of chastity for his chosen representatives, he could have and would have chosen unmarried men.
This requirement is NOT God’s law, it is the Churches law. Therefore, it can be changed, and I suspect that before too long, a new Pope will come along, another John XXIII, and shake the church to its foundations again. He will state that married men are to be preferred as Priests.
I would personally much rather have married Priests, than actively homosexual Priests. I have nothing against homosexuals, but celibacy includes their sexual acts too. Yet a variety of surveys have demonstrated that the majority of men being ordained in the USA are homosexuals, and that the majority of them are sexually active. In fact, several seminaries were actively chasing our heterosexual men (including St. John’s, the primary seminary for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles). Pope John Paul II, was attempting to get that changed, and to bring all North American Seminaries under true teachings of the church, but he became too sick to follow through on that. Unfortunately, Pope Benedict XVI has not pursued that matter with the same vigor.
Of course, I come into this from a different perspective. My maternal grandfather was an active Protestant Minister for over 55 years. I have seen that having a family in no way impedes a man from devoting their time and talents to God and to the Church.
I will make a prediction. Within 25 years (by 2035), most married Permanent Deacons will be ordained as Priests, and the majority of seminarians (at least in North America, Africa and Europe) will be married before they are ordained. If the church does not do this, they will have no Priests to minister to the faithful.
Religious Priests and Brothers will continue to take vows of celibacy. But the ordinary, garden variety Parish Priest will not.
- Paul was unmarried. See 1 cor 7.
- See HERE for an historical explanation of celibacy in the priesthood (although it lacks much of the theological understandings and was written in 1918 I believe). I highly recommend reading it in its entirety. It is enlightening.
PS, I fervently disagree with your statement “If the church does not do this, they will have no Priests to minister to the faithful.” The Church has seen an incredible increase in vocations in traditional seminaries and orders. Those seminaries and orders where celibacy is the norm AND the rule, not just the rule which may be broken. Your statement regarding homosexuals infiltrating the Church, while accurate to a point, is offensive in its implication that most priests are homosexual.
M
Matt_CL
Guest
Though celibacy is a discipline in the Latin Rite , it is a charism that is highly valued by the current pope as well by John Paul II. Thankfully , I do not think it likely you will see it changed. The priest is Christ in persona and his life is configured to Christ in that way too since Christ was unmarried…except to His Bride, The Church.
A priest is married to the most beautiful woman imaginable: The Church, and he is exclusively devoted to her children.
Pope John Paul put it well when he said in Pastores Dabo Vobis that the “unchanging” essence of ordination “configures the priest to Jesus Christ the Head and Spouse of the Church.” … “The Church, as the Spouse of Jesus Christ, wishes to be loved by the priest in the total and exclusive manner in which Jesus Christ her Head and Spouse loved her.”
A priest is married to the most beautiful woman imaginable: The Church, and he is exclusively devoted to her children.
Pope John Paul put it well when he said in Pastores Dabo Vobis that the “unchanging” essence of ordination “configures the priest to Jesus Christ the Head and Spouse of the Church.” … “The Church, as the Spouse of Jesus Christ, wishes to be loved by the priest in the total and exclusive manner in which Jesus Christ her Head and Spouse loved her.”
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