Can the Pope change the discipline on priestly celibacy?

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Can the next Pope change the discipline that Latin rite priests can be married? I’m assuming so but I thought I would ask. Also I’m sure he won’t but one can only pray. I’d love to do both, be married and be a priest that is.
 
I think technically yes, but I’m sure he would not do so by autocratic fiat. Frankly, we need celibate priests more than ever as a sign of contradiction to a world that thinks life without marriage and sex is an unfulfilled or wasted life.
 
Frankly, we need celibate priests more than ever as a sign of contradiction to a world that thinks life without marriage and sex is an unfulfilled or wasted life.
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I disagree, I think the benefits of a married and familied Priesthood are greater than at any time in the past. At a time when the basic social structure and fabric is being ripped apart, when more could you want good role models of good, married, Christian life?

The family is an honorable thing, and most Priests are honorable men. Its wrong to separate the two as we do.
 
Our priests lead very full lives with no time to devote to a wife and family. He’d either have to give more time to one or the other, which would be unfair to either one. St. Paul’s admonition to be free to serve the Lord was a wise one. A married man will have to please his wife, but a man dedicated to the Church need only please God and his bishop.
 
Balcerhouse said:
Can the next Pope change the discipline that Latin rite priests can be married?
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He can probably change the discipline that Latin Rite priests can *be married *easier than he can change the discipline that Latin Rite priests can marry (which, actually, I don’t think he can do… none of the Apostolic Churches, to my knowledge, allow their priests to marry).

On the other hand, there are already today married Latin Rite priests.
 
mburn16 said:
The family is an honorable thing, and most Priests are honorable men. Its wrong to separate the two as we do.
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The Church has never taught that the family is a dishonorable thing. It has however taught that celibacy and virginity are superior to the marriage state (note that that does not mean one is bad and the other good, but rather that marriage is good, but celibacy better) in the Council of Trent and affirmed by Pius XII and probably others.
 
I was listening to a talk by an Eastern rite Catholic (I think it may have been on Catholic Answers Live Radio) and he was married while also being a priest. He said that it would be better not to be married. Dividing time between family and parish was the biggest problem. He said that it was terrible to need to help a parishioner when his family was really needing him then.

What he said jived with my own sense while I was not converted yet and a Protestant. I really felt sorry for the families of the men who were married and ministers. They often lost out.

I believe the Pope is able to change the discipline, but won’t due to St.Paul’s speaking about single men being able to focus on the Lord more than married men.
 
Scottgun said:
The Church has never taught that the family is a dishonorable thing. It has however taught that celibacy and virginity are superior to the marriage state (note that that does not mean one is bad and the other good, but rather that marriage is good, but celibacy better) in the Council of Trent and affirmed by Pius XII and probably others.
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True stuff ^^

Also,
Yes the Pope can change any discipline. He is supreme in the Church and can change the law if he so chooses. (He cannot change Divine Law or Natural Law, I am speaking of cannon law which includes disciplines like unmarried priests)

That said,
I think it won’t happen soon. Personally, I like the idea of an unmarried priesthood.
Here are some reasons
  1. The superiority of the virginal state
  2. The ancient tradition of celibacy when offering sacrafice (back to the Jewish days) and of course Priests offer sacrafice
  3. The ability to be a spiritual father to many and a father to real children are often difficult to balance. As a Priest, it is necessary to give oneself completely to the flock.
  4. It is difficult to provide for a family as a Priest
  5. The spirituality of a priest is not suited for men in the world or with a family. A priest must be completely pure and fast frequently. They must make time for mental prayer (eveeryone must but Priests even more so and for longer periods of time). Priests have daily Mass to say and the Divine Office as well. These are the minimums for the spirituality of a Priest.
I am not saying no married priests at all. Those are the exception not the rule in my mind. But then again, its just me its not the infallible teaching of the Catholic Church as this is cannon law not divine law.
 
Yet, at the time when the Catholic Church is suffering such massive priest shortages, can we afford to not open up the pool of men eligible for the priesthood?
 
Della said:
Our priests lead very full lives with no time to devote to a wife and family. He’d either have to give more time to one or the other, which would be unfair to either one. St. Paul’s admonition to be free to serve the Lord was a wise one. A married man will have to please his wife, but a man dedicated to the Church need only please God and his bishop.
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First of all, I am in compliance with whatever the Pope decrees.

Yet, look at the contribution of Deacon’s wives in our Churches. I know we do not have deaconesses, but privately, I think of them as that. I am not suggesting “priestesses” just that a married priesthood might be to the benefit of some parishes.
 
Ohana said:
First of all, I am in compliance with whatever the Pope decrees.

Yet, look at the contribution of Deacon’s wives in our Churches. I know we do not have deaconesses, but privately, I think of them as that. I am not suggesting “priestesses” just that a married priesthood might be to the benefit of some parishes.
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The Church would be getting a two-fer. I don’t think many wives would want to be put in that position. I wouldn’t.
 
I would be crushed if the next Holy Father reversed such a revered and great tradition. As a young man applying to Seminary, it would really change my life around. Indeed, I feel that to do so, would be to capitulate to the modernists and those who seek major reform. No compromise.
 
There are good reasons for a celibate priesthood - the “sign of contradiction” argument is particularly timely.

However, it’s not true to say that having married priests would somehow not work. The Orthodox churches are proof that having married priests does work.
Ohana said:
Yet, look at the contribution of Deacon’s wives in our Churches. I know we do not have deaconesses, but privately, I think of them as that. I am not suggesting “priestesses” just that a married priesthood might be to the benefit of some parishes.
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You could have a point. In Orthodox parishes that have married pastors, the pastor’s wife sometimes essentially serves as a mother for the parish as well. I’ve read that some bear the title “Presbytera.”
 
Siding with Scottgun and BPP9 on this one.

Whatever the merits of a “familied priesthood,” they would be more than offset by the negation of the celibate clergy’s witness to a life that transcends sex.

The world does not need priests with children to know that children are a good thing, or with wives to know that a spouse is good. Or, rather, those who don’t know that aren’t going to Mass anyway.

What the world would see, if celibacy ended now, would be a surrender to the ongoing sexual revolution. Remember how HH’s statement about male prostitution and condoms was received? This would be spun the same way. “His Holiness has just admitted that even priests can’t live without sex, why should we???”

The message of chastity would be gone. Any boost to family values caused by “familied priests” would not compensate for that loss. IMNAAHO.

ICXC NIKA
 
Balcerhouse said:
Can the next Pope change the discipline that Latin rite priests can be married? I’m assuming so but I thought I would ask. Also I’m sure he won’t but one can only pray. I’d love to do both, be married and be a priest that is.
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Matrimony is as much a vocation as consecrated life.

We have in the Church priests who are also married (though perhaps not in the Latin rite) which gives us knowledge that there can be compatibility between the two vocations (even though, as St. Paul teaches, this will affect the office of the priest.

However, one would argue that it has been God’s own will that the Latin rite clergy take a vow of celibacy…otherwise His will would have been done and previous Councils or Popes would have been directed by the Holy Spirit to allow priests to marry.

In theory, I understand this is a matter of tradition and Canon Law, not of an infallible pronouncement of a Council or a Pope, so it could change.
 
I don’t understand how people think a married priest could look after his flock in the same manner as an unmarried priest. Why don’t you just try to get a hold of your priest for a normal chi chat or invite him for supper. It’s next to impossible. These guys are busy, they are on call 24/7 Think about if you were involved with your own family and trying to hold down a job that takes so much time. Something would suffer.

If you would like to be part of the preisthood and be married that is a wonderful calling also. You should look into the deaconate.

Cheers
 
Shiranui117 said:
Yet, at the time when the Catholic Church is suffering such massive priest shortages, can we afford to not open up the pool of men eligible for the priesthood?
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We are not suffering from a shortage of priest. There was one but we a slowly turning that corner. THe biggest shortages are in more of the liberal diocese and semenaries. Not so in more orthodax xentres. Men and Woman are drawn to the truth and you will find that a shortage is not so!👍
 
Bl_Pope_Pius_IX said:
I would be crushed if the next Holy Father reversed such a revered and great tradition. As a young man applying to Seminary, it would really change my life around. Indeed, I feel that to do so, would be to capitulate to the modernists and those who seek major reform. No compromise.
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God Bless you gentle sir, my wife and I have you specifically in our prayers because the Lord knows you!

Peace:thumbsup:
 
It would be unjust for a parishioner to die without the sacraments because Father was at his kid’s Scouting camp out; and it would be unjust for the kid to miss having Dad with him there because of tending to parishioners.

The two vocations are both all-demanding, and as such, apart from
other issues, should be kept separate.

And before someone brings up other callings just as vital to life, I.e., medicine, whose followers all have families; I’d say, when entry to seminary is as competitive as to medical school, that would be an argument.

ICXC NIKA
 
Della said:
The Church would be getting a two-fer. I don’t think many wives would want to be put in that position. I wouldn’t.
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Seconded, Della. My husband works long hours and it’s all we can do to get together to do housework together. By housework, I mean fixing the house, not little things I can do by myself like washing dishes or vacuuming. I would like to ask him to see if he can cut some of the overtime, but it means that he can’t pay his student loans. I work, but my money goes toward my student loans and groceries. I could only imagine how much we’d struggle if he was a priest paying off his student loans! Aren’t priests required to have a doctorate in theology/philosophy?

Personally, as a wife, I feel that if you’re a man who is married and still wants to be a priest too, you’re not spending your resources in your domestic church properly. Marriage is a full-time vocation and if you have children, you should not have to choose between spending time with them and time spent as a priest in the universal church. I’ve met some preacher’s kids who /still/ harbor resentment toward their fathers for that years later.

I’m not convinced that allowing married men into the priesthood will make the priest shortage go away. I think it would only exhaust the men who want to do something positive for the church, not to mention their wives.
 
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