Is it time to allow Preists to get married?

[Eucharisted]

There are Deacons, you know.

 

[mark_a]

I believe that this time has arrived. There aren’t enough people entering the presithood. This will cause the Catholic Church to become week and cause more people to join evangelical groups. I don’t like this prospect because from what I’ve seen of evangelicals, they are wrong on a lot of things. I don’t agree with much of what they say as far as theology goes.

The fact that there are some married presits shows that it isn’t a bad thing. They must be able to function. I would be curious to hear from somebody who goes to a church where presits are married. Who thinks this will happen over the next 30 years ? I’m comming to believe it would be a good thing.

I don’t know about all that, but I’ve been impressed with the priests I’ve met from Africa and India. So many are coming from there.

I personally believe that the cause of the priest shortage in the western world is due to a lack of faith and obedience in the pews.

If 97% of Catholics of child bearing age live the lie of contraception, how can we expect that the faith will be lived by their kids, who are the potential vocations of the future???

 

[edwest2]

It is not a good idea. The date on the calendar does not change anything.

Peace,
Ed

 

[StrawberryJam]

What if the married priest gets a divorce?

 

[Rolltide]

What if the married priest gets a divorce?

1. It would likely create great scandal.
2. In the eyes of the church, he would still be married. A divorce only affects the civil portion of the marriage, not the spiritual. For the marriage to be dissolved, he would need to seek an annulment. Once proclaimed, a Catholic marriage is forever, no if, ands, or buts. HOWEVER, an annulment can seek to investigate whether the marriage wasn’t valid in the first place, and so never actually occurred.

I think the diocese involved would go to TREMENDOUS lengths to ensure that this situation never arose.

 

[RobbyS]

I believe that this time has arrived. There aren’t enough people entering the presithood. This will cause the Catholic Church to become week and cause more people to join evangelical groups. I don’t like this prospect because from what I’ve seen of evangelicals, they are wrong on a lot of things. I don’t agree with much of what they say as far as theology goes.

The fact that there are some married presits shows that it isn’t a bad thing. They must be able to function. I would be curious to hear from somebody who goes to a church where presits are married. Who thinks this will happen over the next 30 years ? I’m comming to believe it would be a good thing.

You are looking for an easy “fix.” It isn’t. Since the '60s we have suffered what amounts to a rebellion against the Church led by the lower clergy. Not like that led by the likes of Luther and Calvin , who were deeply Christian, but by liberals who do not believe in Christ except as a mythical figure. After the Council, many priests and nuns, as during the “reformation” abandoned their calling, and began to preach the Gospel of a new world order. Many officially left the Church. many more remains and sought to subvert her from within. They recruited and took in many of their kind, and the bishops, fearful of the dropping numbers of their clergy, began to take in many who desired not to serve Christ but the World. This included many homosexuals. Priests with normal appetites were discouraged from entering the seminary by parents and even disillusioned priests. What had bee regarded as a great calling was diminished in the eyes of the laity to the level of a “profession,” on the same level almost as the Protestant clergy. In the new moral climate, celibacy was regarded even among the pious as “abnormal.” which allowed for the acceptance of homosexuals. Many bishops, evidentally decided that the traditonal priesthood was impossible and recruited only the minimal number of priests and began to talk up the idea of a married priesthood. In any case, their seminaries educated few priests and standards for admission were lowered. Priests became older and oldere, and parishes fewer and fewer.

Is a married priesthood the answer? The experience of the Protestant churches tell us not necessarily. Married priests brings a whole new set of problems. For one thing, recruitment means that we need to have two committed persons, plus their children. This is harder in a feminist age than it was in the 18th Century, with large clerical families gladly living in genteel poverty. Protestant clergymen are as often as not, like small businessmen, or civil servants and their families demand a middle class life style. Even so, the numbers of married “volunteers” is unlikely to fill the ranks of a church in need of priests. If we were to adopt the Greek discipline,which is the traditional alternative. we need to face the raw fact that many priests in Greece are bachelors because they could not find women who are willing to marry a young deacon and share a live of limited resources, even poverty.

 

[aicirt]

No, I don’t think priests should marry. A priest on EWTN said no married men have been ordained as priests since the apostles. I know priests from the Anglican Church can come in as priests with their wives and families but those are the exceptions.

I do not understand why the Church prohibits widowed deacons from remarrying.

I don’t think all married Protestant ministers are free from problems. There’s always the problem of divorce, sickness of the wife or children, children who are problems, and wives who are not supportive.

 

[Rolltide]

It may be a good time to remind everyone here that the irony of the situation is that mandatory celibacy was instituted as a rule across the Latin rite as a REFORM (and a popular one at that). During the time of the Cluny Reform Movement of the ninth century, there were a great deal of problems involving married priests. Nepotism was rampant, with many priests promoting the advancement (and often buying the advancement) of their children in the church. Some lived lavish lifestyles with their families, spending heavily from the collection plate to build things like personal palaces. There were also problems with infidelity among the priests, and scandals involving their children. (Keep in mind that a lot of this was due to the extremely poor literacy and education of the time. Local priests often had very little training.) The monks at Cluny monastery began a reform movement that rapidly spread from the religious order to the secular priests across Europe. Within 100 years, there were over 1,400 daughter monasteries from Cluny, all spreading reform. The movement was extremely successful, and immensely popular. The reforms finally could not be ignored, and were adopted and codified by the pope for the Latin rite of the church. Other reforms included the institution of cathedral schools as seminaries, the creation of the College of Cardinals to make the succession of the pope orderly, and and end to lay investiture.

This simply illustrates that ALL people are sinners, and that whatever system is in place will not be perfect. Scandal will sadly happen from time to time.

 

[matt1985]

I consider my self to be a conservative catholic, but am more open to the idea of married preists as a matter of need. There aren’t many people entering the presisthood these days. The dwindling number of presists can’t be a good thing for the Church. It is sad for society in general. In my view as long as they go through the proper training the celebacy requirement should be optional. I think people don’t become deacons because it just isn’t as prestegious as being a presit. Many peobably don’t know what it even is.

I’m no expert on this issue and feel there are good reasons to be against it as well.

 

[bobzills]

I believe that this time has arrived. There aren’t enough people entering the presithood. This will cause the Catholic Church to become week and cause more people to join evangelical groups. I don’t like this prospect because from what I’ve seen of evangelicals, they are wrong on a lot of things. I don’t agree with much of what they say as far as theology goes.

The fact that there are some married presits shows that it isn’t a bad thing. They must be able to function. I would be curious to hear from somebody who goes to a church where presits are married. Who thinks this will happen over the next 30 years ? I’m comming to believe it would be a good thing.

I agree with you here. Also, in many cases the wife of the priest adds a nice touch to the after Mass social functions at the parish hall.

 

[bobzills]

Priests cannot marry. .

Not true.
I know of a case where a Catholic priest married and then under some ceremony he was accepted or "ordained ?"as a priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

 

[fix]

Not true.
I know of a case where a Catholic priest married and then under some ceremony he was accepted or "ordained ?"as a priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Well, did he marry with the permission of the Catholic bishop?

 

[bobzills]

Well, did he marry with the permission of the Catholic bishop?

No he did not. He left the Catholic Church. He then got married. He was then accepted into the Orthodox Church and got permission from the Orthodox bishop to go through the ceremony according to which he would be an Orthodox priest. However, this is rare and not a usual thing.

 

[fix]

No he did not. He left the Catholic Church. He then got married. He was then accepted into the Orthodox Church and got permission from the Orthodox bishop to go through the ceremony according to which he would be an Orthodox priest. However, this is rare and not a usual thing.

So, my point stands. Priests are not allowed to marry. If they get dispensed from their vows, and their ministry, then they can get married. But, that is not what we are talking about.

 

[bobzills]

So, my point stands. Priests are not allowed to marry. If they get dispensed from their vows, and their ministry, then they can get married. But, that is not what we are talking about.

No. This was an example of a Catholic priest, who left and got married. He was then allowed to function as an Orthodox priest, even though he got married after he was ordained a Catholic priest.

 

[fix]

No. This was an example of a Catholic priest, who left and got married. He was then allowed to function as an Orthodox priest, even though he got married after he was ordained a Catholic priest.

Yes, but in the Catholic Church priests cannot get married after they are ordained and as far as I know they never have. If they get laicized and leave the priesthood that is a different matter.

 

[Rolltide]

So, my point stands. Priests are not allowed to marry. If they get dispensed from their vows, and their ministry, then they can get married. But, that is not what we are talking about.

As I stated above, there is one EXTREMELY rare scenario where an already ordained priest can get married in the Catholic Church. If an already married priest with very young children has his wife die, he can petition directly to the pope for a dispensation allowing him to potentially remarry, should he find someone with which he wishes to do so.

 

[fix]

As I stated above, there is one EXTREMELY rare scenario where an already ordained priest can get married in the Catholic Church. If an already married priest with very young children has his wife die, he can petition directly to the pope for a dispensation allowing him to potentially remarry, should he find someone with which he wishes to do so.

OK, if that is true it still does not mean once you are ordained, as a single man, you can get married as a priest.

 

[Rolltide]

OK, if that is true it still does not mean once you are ordained, as a single man, you can get married as a priest.

Absolutely correct.

 

[GraceDK]

What if the married priest gets a divorce?

What if a celibate priest gets a divorce?
Should we then get rid of celibacy all together.
I will remind you that many priests fall in love and have love affairs. They are natural men with natural desires for nearness and love. They might be lonely. They fall in love, and some of them give in to their emotions and cause scandal or live with much pain and remorse.

In my country we had a wonderful priest and monk who was very clever and pious. He was a carmelite and was sometimes on TV where he eloquently defended the Church.
One day we all had the news that this priest had been loosened from his vows. He was going to marry the woman he had loved since his youth.
He had not sinned. While he was celibate he was faithful to that.
But I think… if he had married her back in a day and the Church had allowed married priests he would not have had to leave his wonderful ministry in order to have a wife and family. We could sure use him in these parts of the world.

We cannot use the sins of some in order to rid our selves of good things. So the argument of divorce is no argument.