otm:
Some religious have been celibate. Some have been married.
Sex has nothing to do with the issue. The issue is about who is called to the Sacrament of Holy Orders. And the fact that someone is married does not mean that he does not have a call to the priesthood.
I can appreciate the difference in the Eastern and Roman traditions. I still believe however that the primary issue is indeed sexual vs married and unmarried clergy. The question had to do with celibacy. I don’t recall that it had anything at all to do with being married or unmarried. But since the issue of marriage came up I will give my view on it.
Since the Roman Rite does not have married priests, the Priests are supposed to remain celibate, as are religious brothers and sisters. When and if Rome changes the policy, for lack of a better word, then Married priests will be OK.
However, such a policy change could have extremely wide ranging and possibly catestrophic effects. For instance, the stipend that Priests currently receive would have to be increased greatly, housing would have to be provided or the pay increased even more. Family concerns would quite naturally occupy a lot of the Priests time. Since the Priest now has two distinct loyalties, one to the Church and the other to his family, which will take priority? How about health care for the family, education etc. True these concern everybody else, but Priests aren’t just everybody else either.
And yes, Protestant churches do it all the time, but since they are basically set up as independent churches under an umbrella, each Church can pay its’ own pastor. Each church itself, through its’ board of trustees or whatever, solicits applications, interviews, selects and hires its’ pastor. That is of course not true for the pastor who sets up his own church. The living expenses of the pastor and his family if there is one is then paid by the individual church. Someting like that arrangement might work for married Clergy in the Roman Catholic Church as well. However ,that would probably entail separating the individual Church from the direct control of the Bishop, at least as far as finances and hiring the Priests are concerned. And since the Bishop has no say in hiring his Priests his influence would be minimal at best. In essence, it would seem that this scenario could lead to difficulties with Apostolic Tradition, and would lead to the Roman Catholic Church to become a group of independent chuches.
I am not well versed in the eastern Churches, so if i am wrong please correct me. They don’t allow a man to marry once he has received Holy Orders, and their Bishops must be unmarried. So even the eastern Church has some reservations about the role of married men in the clergy. And I would have to imagine that the married men admitted to Holy Orders are very well screened indeed to determine if they can handle the l stress of maintaining a family in addition to ministering to a congregation.
No, I think the prohibition on married clergy is quite sensible at least for now. As far as the celibacy issue, which was the original question my opinion is the same.
Stay celibate.
