Life-giving practice of priestly celibacy must be preserved, says Cardinal Pell

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Life-giving practice of priestly celibacy must be preserved, says Cardinal Pell

Vatican City, Oct. 12, 2005 (CNA) - Speaking to 239 Bishops of the General Synod meeting this morning at the Vatican, Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney criticized recommendations to remove the discipline of mandatory celibacy for priests, saying that blaming the Church’s current troubles on the practice would be a “serious error.”…

“To loosen this tradition now”, he stressed, "would be a serious error, which would provoke confusion in the mission areas and would not strengthen spiritual vitality in the First World. It would be a departure from the practice of the Lord Himself, bring significant practical disadvantages to the work of the Church, e.g. financial, and weaken the sign value of the priesthood; it would weaken, too, the witness to loving sacrifice, and to the reality of the Last Things, and the rewards of Heaven.

Many have blamed the practice of celibacy for the recent priestly sexual abuse scandal in the U.S. Read more…
 
I heard that prelates from orthodox areas say that in fact marriage does interfere with a priest’s performance of his duties. Celibacy is a good thing. :clapping:
  • Kathie :bowdown:
 
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harinkj:
I heard that prelates from orthodox areas say that in fact marriage does interfere with a priest’s performance of his duties. Celibacy is a good thing. :clapping:
  • Kathie :bowdown:
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I just came across this story from the Maronite Patriarch, that married priests take time away from their parishes to care for and educate their families:

lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/text/2005/oct/07/100709566.html

My problem is with saying that marriage “interferes” with priestly duties and creates “equal problems” (equal to what?). Yes, married men have to take care of their families, but why is this a bad thing for priests and good for virtually every other category of man? Reading the Philadelphia grand jury reports and some of the venomous posts on homosexuality in these forums really makes it hard for me not to wish for a married priesthood. Celibacy is a good thing, and religious orders will always keep that jewel shining, but I can’t help but think we have narrowed the concept of clerical celibacy to something far too thin. The Eastern ways are looking better and better.
 
Caridal Sefir is correct that permitting a married priesthood in the Latin Church will simply create a different set of problems, and those may be worse than the ones that are already present.

In 2002 Fr. Maximos (a monk from Holy Resurrection Monastery – not a priest, but called “Father” because of his role as a “spiritual father”) had a fantastic article on “Celibacy in Context” in FIRST THINGS. It’s well worth the read.

Deacon Ed
 
Goodness gracious me!

Something I agree with Cardinal Pell well well well…
 
I loved the First Things article, but I did not see anywhere the idea that marriage would somehow be bad or cause “bigger problems” for priests. In fact I think Western religious orders would continue to maintain celibacy in a way very similar to how the Eastern monastics do, as the First Things article elaborates (emphasis added):

“The proper place for radical celibacy is a life of radical asceticism within that tradition of mutual support provided within the monastic milieu. For parish clergy, such radicalism is seen as out of place—neither improper nor impossible, but immensely difficult. This assessment in no way makes the life of the parish priest somehow inferior to that of the monk. Both are called to the same ascetical program, but in different degrees. The tradition simply recognizes that each must put this program into effect in the real world he inhabits. Each must rely on the other to supply that kind of holiness in the other’s own life that he cannot produce in his own. The Church needs both the holiness of marriage and the holiness of radical celibacy in equal measure.”
 
Deacon Ed:
Caridal Sefir is correct that permitting a married priesthood in the Latin Church will simply create a different set of problems, and those may be worse than the ones that are already present.

In 2002 Fr. Maximos (a monk from Holy Resurrection Monastery – not a priest, but called “Father” because of his role as a “spiritual father”) had a fantastic article on “Celibacy in Context” in FIRST THINGS. It’s well worth the read.

Deacon Ed
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What kind of problems? Protestant churches and other Catholic rites have married priest and are doing alright. I belong to the Polish National Catholic Church who have married priests. In my parish the priest has a wife and children and he is not taken alway from the church because of them. I think a married priest has abetter understanding of things and show more human feelings.
 
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chriswilliam:
I think a married priest has a better understanding of things and show more human feelings.
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I think this also goes too far. My premise is that marriage is neither a disability nor a boon to the parish priesthood and that religious orders will always continue the charism of celibacy. But we Catholics are hemorraging credibility on these issues as it is, and to regularly read about how marriage “would cause even greater problems for the priesthood” is ludicrous. Why are married parish priests the one category of man who are regularly attacked for doing the ordinary things they need to for their families? To repeat a quote from First Things, celibacy is a radical thing, and **"**For parish clergy, such radicalism is seen as out of place—neither improper nor impossible, but immensely difficult." We make it sounds as if marriage would be even more immensely difficult, which is bewildering to me.
 
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chriswilliam:
What kind of problems? Protestant churches and other Catholic rites have married priest and are doing alright. I belong to the Polish National Catholic Church who have married priests. In my parish the priest has a wife and children and he is not taken alway from the church because of them. I think a married priest has abetter understanding of things and show more human feelings.
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Many of our Melkite priests are married, and they do a marveleous job of serving their people. However, what do you think would happen if a priest had a child or wife in the hospital in serious condition and had a call to leave the hospital to be with someone who was suffering some emotional problem? Where do his first loyalties lie? This is the sort of problem married priests have to deal with all the time. What of a parish that has, say, 5,000 families? Is it still possible?

Deacon Ed
 
Deacon Ed:
Many of our Melkite priests are married, and they do a marveleous job of serving their people. However, what do you think would happen if a priest had a child or wife in the hospital in serious condition and had a call to leave the hospital to be with someone who was suffering some emotional problem? Where do his first loyalties lie? This is the sort of problem married priests have to deal with all the time. What of a parish that has, say, 5,000 families? Is it still possible?

Deacon Ed
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Of course it’s “possible.” We have already “professionalized” ministry so that the celibate priests take “sick days” and “paid time off” and what not the same as married, lay ministers. Most Catholic ministries make a great point of treating priests, nuns, and laity exactly the same in terms of “employee status.” Almost all priests have tight time assignment times of X number of years so that it is impossible to say that a priest is “married” to his parish.

A priest with a family problem would have someone cover for him that same as a physician, a therapist, or an attorney would. To ask, “What if there was no one to cover?” is to beg the question, because the whole premise of the debate is that we need to have an adequate number of healthy and devoted priests. I have a whole ranking of attorneys and physicians I prefer to deal with when my first choice is away. One of the stereotypes of the business world is that single people won’t be distracted by marriage and family; in the end we quickly find that they are easily distracted by other things.
 
Deacon Ed:
Many of our Melkite priests are married, and they do a marveleous job of serving their people. However, what do you think would happen if a priest had a child or wife in the hospital in serious condition and had a call to leave the hospital to be with someone who was suffering some emotional problem? Where do his first loyalties lie? This is the sort of problem married priests have to deal with all the time. What of a parish that has, say, 5,000 families? Is it still possible?

Deacon Ed
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I see your point. You would think if a priest has afamily emergency and if the parish is large it might have another priest to take over calls,or if it is a small parish there might be a priest from another church to fill in. Single priests do have families like parents.sisters and so on.What do they do when one of them are in the hospital. They also go on vacations there must be other priests to fill in.
 
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