S
stumbler
Guest
National Catholic Register Editorial
May 15-21, 2005
Three Catholic issues drive critics nuts.
Articles criticizing Pope Benedict XVI keep singling out three issues: the celibacy of priests, the all-male priesthood and the prohibition of artificial contraception.
During May, our editorials will look at each of them, starting this week with celibacy, which is a little bit different from the other two. It isn’t a teaching on faith or morals — the Church doesn’t teach that it is impossible for a married man to be a priest. In fact, celibacy wasn’t required of priests for the first millennium of the Church’s history (though most priests were, in fact, celibate).
There are even a few married priests in the Catholic Church today — in some Eastern Catholic rites, and in a few cases of Protestant ministers who converted.
That said, celibacy will probably remain a requirement for the foreseeable future. That’s because celibacy was something Christ himself wanted. In the Gospel of Mark (10:28-30) Peter complained, “Lord, we have given up everything to follow you.”
Christ answered, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come” (Mark 10:29-30).
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus praised those who “renounced marriage for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven” (19:12).
St. Paul pointed out that “An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided” (1 Corinthians 7:32-34).
Before he became Pope Benedict, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said that Christ urged celibacy so that priests would be a sign of hope. By giving up family life. the priest shows that he believes that citizenship in the Kingdom of heaven is just as real as citizenship in this world. . . .
Full Editorial
May 15-21, 2005
Three Catholic issues drive critics nuts.
Articles criticizing Pope Benedict XVI keep singling out three issues: the celibacy of priests, the all-male priesthood and the prohibition of artificial contraception.
During May, our editorials will look at each of them, starting this week with celibacy, which is a little bit different from the other two. It isn’t a teaching on faith or morals — the Church doesn’t teach that it is impossible for a married man to be a priest. In fact, celibacy wasn’t required of priests for the first millennium of the Church’s history (though most priests were, in fact, celibate).
There are even a few married priests in the Catholic Church today — in some Eastern Catholic rites, and in a few cases of Protestant ministers who converted.
That said, celibacy will probably remain a requirement for the foreseeable future. That’s because celibacy was something Christ himself wanted. In the Gospel of Mark (10:28-30) Peter complained, “Lord, we have given up everything to follow you.”
Christ answered, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come” (Mark 10:29-30).
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus praised those who “renounced marriage for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven” (19:12).
St. Paul pointed out that “An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided” (1 Corinthians 7:32-34).
Before he became Pope Benedict, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said that Christ urged celibacy so that priests would be a sign of hope. By giving up family life. the priest shows that he believes that citizenship in the Kingdom of heaven is just as real as citizenship in this world. . . .
Full Editorial