Reasoning to lift clerical celibacy

[edwest2]

Here is an explanation of how priestly celibacy is viewed by the Church.

vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_24061967_sacerdotalis_en.html

Honestly, it makes no sense for a man who wants to abuse boys to go through seminary training, get ordained and then molest them. Even in the 1960s, us kids were warned that if a guy in a car offered you candy to get in for a ride, to run away, tell your parents, and call the police.

Please read the following to get a little perspective on the abuse issue.

lifesitenews.com/news/archive//ldn/2010/apr/10040101

Peace,
Ed

 

[Sarcelle]

I recommend the Catholic League analysis of the John Jay report, which can be found HERE. The John Jay report and it’s follow-up can both be found at the USCCB website as well.

Celibacy had nothing to do with it.

Correct. If that were the case, than they it wouldn’t take long before people are accusing not only priests but also single men who in obedience to the church, practice chastity.After all refraining from sex leads to pedophilia.

 

[sw85]

Correct. If that were the case, than they it wouldn’t take long before people are accusing not only priests but also single men who in obedience to the church, practice chastity.After all refraining from sex leads to pedophilia.

Yeah, like I said above, I don’t even remotely start understanding this claim. I’m a high-T sort of guy, very virile even for a man my age, and chaste since my baptism. I’m about as full of desire as they come… even so, 14-year-old boys don’t strike me as attractive.

The train of logic that leads from “horny and celibate” to “molesting same-sex teenagers” does not have for its conductor any right-thinking, sexually healthy person.

 

[_Abyssinia]

Well, there’s a very good model for comparison here. Ask the Orthodox. They allow priests to be married, so what are the statistics on the numbers of their priests? Do they have a priest shortage as well, and if so, how serious is it compared to the United States?

Orthodox Leaders Cite Shortage of Priests

While the Orthodox Church in America is attracting converts, it suffers from a priest shortage and a clergy morale problem, its leaders said yesterday during an open discussion at the church’s All-American Council.

The Orthodox tradition allows married men to become priests, but few American men born and raised in the tradition are seeking holy orders. Of 100 students enrolled at St. Vladimir’s Seminary in Crestwood, N.Y., just one-third were born into American Orthodox homes. Others are former Protestants, Catholics and even New Age devotees. Still others are immigrants.

While more than half of the church’s 13 bishops are converts, they acknowledged a problem and joined in yesterday’s discussion at the weeklong meeting in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

Some dioceses have salary requirements for priests, but many parishes refuse to abide by them, said the Rev. Alexander Garklavs, chairman of the church’s pastoral care unit. He cited lay leaders who refused to pay the minimum because the priest’s children were grown or because his wife worked.

post-gazette.com/regionstate/19990729orthodox6.asp

 

[_Abyssinia]

Another argument is that a celibate priesthood leads to a scarcity of priests, so that the Church has to hang on to homosexual priests or even those accused of pedophilia.

No one has said that homosexuality (or homosexual acts) is bad only if a Catholic practices it.

President of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Ernie Allen says

We don’t see the Catholic Church as a hotbed of this or a place that has a bigger problem than anyone else. I can tell you without hesitation that we have seen cases in many religious settings, from traveling evangelists to mainstream ministers to rabbis and others

Dr Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies at Penn State and author of Pedophiles and Priests: Anatomy of a Contemporary Crisis, says

My research of cases over the past 20 years indicates no evidence whatever that Catholic or other celibate clergy are any more likely to be involved in misconduct or abuse than clergy of any other denomination—or indeed, than non-clergy. However determined news media may be to see this affair as a crisis of celibacy, the charge is just unsupported. . . . . My concern over the “pedophile priest” issue is not to defend evil clergy, or a sinful church (I cannot be called a Catholic apologist, since I am not even a Catholic). But I am worried that justified anger over a few awful cases might be turned into ill-focused attacks against innocent clergy. The story of clerical misconduct is bad enough without turning into an unjustifiable outbreak of religious bigotry against the Catholic Church

 

[edwest2]

President of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Ernie Allen says

Dr Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies at Penn State and author of Pedophiles and Priests: Anatomy of a Contemporary Crisis, says

Thank you.

Ed

 

[TomFromMD]

I think there is also the assumption that a lack of sexual behavior causes distortion in the mind, leading to distorted behavior, and that only negating that lack would eliminate the behavior.

For what it’s worth, there is some truth to this for some of us, as Paul recognized in Corinthians 7:9: “But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion”.

In maintaining the celibate priesthood, “burners” will either choose not to join the priesthood, or they will. If they don’t, you lost a potential priest. If they do, some of them will fail to control their passions that might have controlled their passions if they had a wife.

As for me, I’m a happily married burner

 

[wanabesaint]

The Cathechism of the Church has addressed this issue, and to that, people spouting off their opniion without recognizing that, is not good…

but in opinion of reasoning ,Their is no reaon to lift celibacy, God invented Marriage and the obligations of the Sacriments say to not commit adultry. Adultry , its one of the ten commandments. Poligamy of a man being married to two women is seen as wrong, so for a man to both married and be a Priest is wrong, its adultry.
Make a choice, but dont live in sin.

 

[TomFromMD]

for a man to both married and be a Priest is wrong, its adultry.

Woah, there! That is NOT church teaching, and in fact, the church has married priests. They’re just not of the Latin rite.

 

[iloveangels]

Whatever. It’s the exception rather than the rule. Some people are always trying to weasel an exception. It’s disgusting.

 

[Elizabeth502]

The interesting and ironic thing is that a married priesthood would work best at parishes already very generously staffed. Priesthood itself is so demanding on time, energy, and emotion, that a priest who needs to be maximally available to his congregation would never be able to sustain a young (especially) family, even if he were a saint. Young children and adolescents demand real-time attention. It would directly oppose the Catholic notion of family and marriage for a priest to give token (insufficient) time to his family because of professional demands.

It would “work,” if it were very much like a team of pediatricians, who have specific shifts when they’re on-call, and the rest of the week they live normal lives, meaning that they go home to their families (the great majority of pediatricians have families of their own) at the end of a normal (not extended) work day. But that clearly demands the kind of team sharing that is virtually non-existent in most Catholic parishes today, due to personnel shortage.

The other reality is that all of us Christians need time alone for prayer. This is even more true, naturally, for the ministerial priesthood. It affects the level of spirtuality of any particular priest to be deprived of prayer-time and renewal opportunities; they will be the first to tell you that. So again, this implies a healthy team of able priests in order for even one of them at a parish to divide himself between congregation and family responsibilities.

I see it as much more feasible when children are grown, and when the wife’s income is sufficient enough to carry both of them, since the priestly stipend is so small.

JMO

 

[FatherOfTwelve]

Of course, the Roman rite doesn’t make up the totality of the priesthood in the Catholic Church. There are several Eastern rites that allow a married priesthood. So far, it hasn’t brought us nearer to reconciliation with the various Orthodox churches. Orthodoxy itself is not united. I doubt a married Roman rite priesthood would change anything.

@Boccherini… Scarcity of priests in the Roman rite has more to do with families having less children and the adoption of secular values by Catholics than it has to do with celibacy. If a family has only one son they are less likely to encourage him to become a priest and thus “rob” them of grandchildren.

Also, many Catholics have accepted the erroneous notion that sexuality is the end all and be all of earthly happiness–an idea our culture accepts because it has no value for or understanding of a life of sacrifice and self-giving–a concept the world, especially in our times, actively denigrates. Hardly an atmosphere in which vocations can flourish.

I believe you are on to something…
Peace,
FoT (One Seminarian, one Religious Sister) But it is still God who calls, One child or many. Almost forgot, Number 3 son is discerning the priesthood, but he is only 14.