Pfaffenhoffen,
Please bear with me âŚ
Historically within the Church it supported married priesthood. In the first 1200 years of the Churchâs existence, priests, bishops and 39 popes were married. In the first century Celibacy only existed among hermits and monks. This was only considered an optional, alternative lifestyle. During the medieval time, affairs of state brought about the regulation of mandatory celibacy for priests.
In the bible Jesus states: âYou are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.â St. Peter, the pope who was closest to Jesus, was indeed married. There are three references in the Gospel about St. Peterâs wife, his mother-in-law and his family. We can safely assume that all of the Apostles, except for young John, were married with children. Married priests and their spouses were the first priests, the first bishops, the first missionaries. They carried the message of Jesus across cultures and protected it through much adversity. They lead the fragile young Church through its early growth and endured numerous persecutions.
Pope John Paul II recognized this in 1993 when he said publicly that celibacy is not essential to the priesthood.
The early Church was a arrangement of small family-based communities throughout the Mediterranean region. Life was marked by a sense of joyful expectation. Jesus said that he would return and the first Christians believed that it would be soon. Led by married priests, they met at each otherâs homes to celebrate the Mass. Strangers were invited to share the bread and wine. No one was excluded from receiving Communion. The strangers soon became friends, joined the young Church, and brought others to hear the good news of Jesus.
Sacred Scripture documents that priests and bishops of the early Church were married. In the New Testament, in his first letter to Timothy, chapter 3, verses 1 through 7, St. Paul discusses the qualities necessary for a bishop. He describes a âkind and peaceableâ father, a man with a family. As part of his description, St. Paul even asks the question, ââŚhow can any man who does not understand how to manage his own family have responsibility for the church of God?â St. Paul established many small communities and left them in the hands of married priests and bishops.
The early Church is portrayed as democratic, where leadership listened to the community and responded to its needs.
In AD 313, the Roman emperor Constantine legalized Christianity within the Roman Empire. This new legislation enabled the early Church to evolve from a persecuted group of small communities to become the official faith of a world power under Emperor Theodosius in AD 380.
Now this is where the truth lies is with Constantineâs real purpose in adopting Christianity and it certainly was not entirely spiritual. Constantine forced other politicians to become Christians was a test of their loyalty to him by using the new religion to weed out his enemies. It reinforced his political power.
Christianity was the key to establishing a new Roman identity in the conquered peoples. On the surface he made them Christians to save their souls, but this new religion was his final act of conquest over them. Now the official religion of the Roman Empire, many things changed very quickly in the Church. Priests from the small communities were given extraordinary social position among their new Roman contacts. They no longer had to hide from Roman soldiers and fear for their lives. Instead, they received pay for their services as priests and enjoyed special privileges in Roman society. Bishops were given civil authority and assigned jurisdiction over the people in their area. Romans, who were members of the local ruling influential, quickly converted to Christianity as ordered by the Emperor. These were men trained in public life and skilled in city politics. Many became priests and rapidly moved into positions of leadership in the Church.
These Roman politicians, with their newly acquired priesthood, brought the impersonal and legalistic attitudes of government to the Church. The celebration of the Eucharist moved from small home gatherings to know what we call mass that involves huge numbers of people in rather large buildings. The celebration of the Eucharist became highly controlled rituals, which imitate the ceremonies of Romeâs imperial court. This Roman influence is the source of our vestments, genuflection, kneeling, which is the strict formality of Mass.
Therefore an institutional Church structure emerged mirroring that of the Roman government. With the assistance of the Roman Empire, Church leadership became a hierarchy that moved away from its family origins and into the Roman mindset of a ruling class that was above the people in the street
Other changes occurred that shifted emphasis away from the people and towards the preferences of the Roman politicians. The Church adopted the Roman practice of men alone holding institutional authority. There is solid historical evidence that women served as priests prior to this time.
Certainly power and legalism and certain medieval popes abused their authority. In 1075, Pope Gregory VII declared that nobody could judge a pope except God. Infallibility is a man-made concept whether in doctrines, scripture, or church authorities.
The public must do the asking, are we still following the legalistic attitudes of the Roman Empire or are we following the bible and Jesusâ teachings?
Whilst we think today that we have greater knowledge than those is Jesusâ time, we can never under estimate the knowledge of our ancestors.
God bless
:clapping: I laughed.