Should priests be able to marry?

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It’s a discipline not a dogma. It can change. But would it serve us better if it changed? I don’t think so. I formed that opionion while attending my husband’s former Lutheran Church, after seeing some issues emerge there because of the pastor’s wife. Spouses can be hard on ministry, and ministry is hard on spouses.

Look at the divorce rate among Protestant clergy. I personally know quite a few Protestant ministers who are divorced, including some who were close friends. 😦 And they “only” had two children. A Catholic married man trying to be a good Catholic might father a large family. I saw my own husband serve on the parish councel and various church committees, etc. and I was left alone many evenings to care for several young children. I can only imagine what life might be like for the wife of a Catholic priest and their children.

The discipline can change, but I hope it doesn’t.
 
Priests have never been able to marry, and never will be able to marry after ordination.

Married men, OTOH, have been, are, and can be ordained. Currently, the Latin Rite discipline is to ordain celibate men to the priesthood and celibate or married men to the diaconate (Anglican Ordinariate aside). The discipline in the Eastern Rite Catholic and Orthodox Churches is the ordination of either celibate or married men.
 
Possibly but the amount of stress and work being a priest is hard to comprehend, the priest at my parish i know works almost all day and all night attending to the needs of the parish and the community. I do not think there would be any time for marriage because of what there job requires them to do they need to devout that time to their church
 
I also hope that this discipline won’t change. Jesus himself said you can’t serve two masters because you will either love one and hate the other one or be good with one and bad with the other one. I think trying to fulfil both roles marriage and priesthood is a perfect example of trying to serve two masters.
 
If its a poll,I vote ‘NO’.

Even with normal jobs,husbands (wives) can’t seem to seperate work from family. Where would the loyalty of a married priest lie,the church or his family? One would definitely suffer for the other to suceed. And God never intended that any of them should suffer.

I believe it should remain the way it is. And St Paul said something about that (i think).

Anyway that is my own believe about that.
 
Technically they could be “allowed” if we dropped that requirement (one of the only ones we can change.) but I think, personally. Married priests would have a split duty, between God and their Wife. So I don’t think it’s ideal.
 
This debate is always framed in such a way that seems to suppose that priests are men who were abducted and woke up in black shirts against their will!

Priests are men who DECIDED not to marry when they accepted the call to priesthood.

And I’m not all that sure that it’s merely discipline that prohibits priests from marrying. It’s discipline that prevents married men from becomng priests, but I’m pretty sure that even in the eastern catholic churches and eastern orthodox churches that a priest cannot marry AFTER he is ordained a priest. IIRC, even deacons can’t marry after they are ordained (don’t quote me on that without double checking).
 
1ke said:
Priests have never been able to marry, and never will be able to marry after ordination.
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👍 This!

(Of course, “should priests be able to marry?” is common shorthand for “should the Church allow married Latin Rite priests as a general rule?”, even though some think about the question in the way that 1ke clarified for us… ;))
 
My first reaction is why not? Upon further reflection, it would be interesting to study the eastern rites and analyze both the positive and negative experience their priesthood has had. If they have proven that a married priesthood is successful, I say go for it.

We can have opinions but maybe we should study the eastern rites so we can really assess the situation.
 
YosefYosep said:
Pretty straight forward question.
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As you see from the other comments/clarifications, it is not that straightforward. Without going into repeating those clarifications, I just would like to add that priestly celibacy is a GIFT and not a limitation/condemnation. Healthy priests look at it that way and feel honored to show in their celibate state a brilliant sign of the Kingdom.
 
Hmmm… Trying to be a husband to 2 brides would be tough, a father to 2 families so to speak… The body of Christ as a bride demands much attention, as would the earthly (yet spiritual bride) as well… Trying to father natural children and spiritual children… wow… considering the divorce rate of Protestant clergy… Considering the wisdom of years from Saints and a Church guided by the Spirit of Christ…

I pray we never go the way of a married clergy. I was once a Protestant minister (for a brief 3 years) and my little boy was GRATEFUL the day I resigned.

He got his dad back…
 
No. I used to think that the Catholic church was just being mean and picking on it’s priests by saying they cannot get married, but I was also not looking at it logically.

The amount of money that priests make is pitiful even and is not going to be adequate for raising a family. If a priest is married with a wife and children on the way, then that wife is going to have no choice but to work just so that there is going to be enough money to support raising those children.

If the priest is is spending almost all of his time supporting the needs of the parish, then his wife is effectively functioning as a single mother and the children will also suffer for it as neither parent is going to have much time to actually raise them. If the priest is spending time nurturing his own family and doing dad stuff with his kids, then he’s probably neglecting his parish.
 
Jessie5000 said:
My first reaction is why not? Upon further reflection, it would be interesting to study the eastern rites and analyze both the positive and negative experience their priesthood has had. If they have proven that a married priesthood is successful, I say go for it.

We can have opinions but maybe we should study the eastern rites so we can really assess the situation.
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The eastern churches experienced great difficulties regarding priestly celibacy. Much of it was about the state trying to impose itself on religion. This is how it was actually forbidden for parish priests to be celibate and newly ordained priests were taken, even by force, to the monastery if they were ordained not having been married.

If we change the question to “Should married men be admitted to be ordained bishops?” we avoid having to enter into the difficulty of east and west and we can p(name removed by moderator)oint the real issue. Episcopal celibacy is practiced everywhere and scholars are becoming more and more confident that it always has been so. If a married man became bishop (this happened, although married only once, as Paul attests in 1Tim 3:2), he actually had to leave his wife or at least stop being intimate with her. Is this just a discipline? Or was it intended and instituted by Christ himself (Mt 19:12), having a much greater theological value than simply having more time and energy because of not having to take care of a family? And here we get back to my earlier point that celibacy is a gift and not a burdensome discipline.
 
Jessie5000 said:
My first reaction is why not? Upon further reflection, it would be interesting to study the eastern rites and analyze both the positive and negative experience their priesthood has had. If they have proven that a married priesthood is successful, I say go for it.

We can have opinions but maybe we should study the eastern rites so we can really assess the situation.
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Possibly, but we would also need to keep in mind that a practice that works well in a population of less than 20 million might not work nearly as well in a population of over a billion, with many centuries of history of priestly celibacy.

–Jen
 
YosefYosep said:
Pretty straight forward question.
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If Catholic priests want to marry, they are ordained in the Eastern Rite Catholic Church. Otherwise, they remain deacons in the Western Rite Catholic Church.

If your asking if I think the Western Rite should be allowed to marry, my answer is no.
 
1ke said:
Priests have never been able to marry, and never will be able to marry after ordination.

Married men, OTOH, have been, are, and can be ordained. Currently, the Latin Rite discipline is to ordain celibate men to the priesthood and celibate or married men to the diaconate (Anglican Ordinariate aside). The discipline in the Eastern Rite Catholic and Orthodox Churches is the ordination of either celibate or married men.
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Married men can also be ordained to the priesthood with (as I understand it) special dispensation from the Holy Father:

catholicanchor.org/wordpress/archives/1074
 
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