Should the Church allow married Priests?

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ChristopherMich:
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Nope.
 
And the Lone Ranger rides again!!! :tiphat:

Some of your posts are absolutely wonderful. Thank you for participating in this one.
 
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ChristopherMich:
And the Lone Ranger rides again!!! :tiphat:

Some of your posts are absolutely wonderful. Thank you for participating in this one.
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Usually i try not to be so “wordy”, but it does seem that this horse has been beaten to death…

opps, sorry Silver…
 
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LoneRanger:
Usually i try not to be so “wordy”, but it does seem that this horse has been beaten to death…

opps, sorry Silver…
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Yeah, but I missed those beatings and wanted to see what the rest of you thought.
 
The Church already allows married priests in the Eastern rite and for certain Protestant ministers who were already married before they converted.
 
I voted for the second one, which I assume is the current practice. I don’t know why the media keeps bringing his up, and why liberal Catholics keep harping on it. WHO wants to support multiple pastors and their wives with (hopefully) big Catholic families? We have 3 pastors at my parish, so we can have daily mass, regular confession, 5 masses on the weekend, plus holy days. If we had to support their families, we could probably afford only one, and then we’d truly be like the protestant denoms. Or the diocese would have to pick and choose–this one has too many kids, wife doesn’t work etc.

Financially I just don’t see how this can work. Not to mention, the high expectation that as husband and father he will spend lots of time with the family.
 
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ChristopherMich:
Yeah, but I missed those beatings and wanted to see what the rest of you thought.
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for me it is simple from a theological standpoint as well as spiritual…

First, it is not historical/traditional… never been done in the past 2000 years by the catholic church. The Holy Spirit guides the church and I just don’t see man having the ability to squelch the wants of Christ and what he wants for his chruch…

Secondy, it’s not scriptural… no where in the “inspired” word is there evidence of female clerics… Again i don’t see God’s hands being cuffed if his plan included women priest…

Thirdly and lastly, logically speaking… try to fund the wives, children and theirs specific needs when it’s all we can do to fund the priesthood… How can a man be a good priest as well as a good husband and father… (This one will catch flack)… can you imagine how slowly the gospel would have spread if a priest, monk, friar, etc… had to drag his family while trying to minister to hundreds of other families…

bottom line… you have to believe in the revealed plan of Chirst Church on this earth… Do you really believe that if God intended female clerics that any man or Pope could stand in his way…? Do you think the likes of John Paul II who said yes to Christ in every time he asked, would say no to Christ now…

I don’t think so… IMHO
 
I know that there are married Priests now. Apparently 100 of them, that were ordained due to a shortage? True? False? Help?
 
I voted the second. If unmarried when becoming a priest, you should stay unmarried.

I don’t have a problem with a married priest, in general. The financial arguments against having married priests seems to be a big argument against this, I’m not sure I go along with this one. If we trust the Lord to provide for big families for laity; wouldn’t he provide for the priests families as well? I think it boils down to a matter of trust.

Would the wife of a priest be a cleric? I don’t know.
 
I voted yes, even though I feel I’m not qualified to make the decision. What I really mean is that the Church should not be closed off to considering the possibility of making the priesthood available to married men. After all, it is a discipline and not doctrine that priests take a vow of chastity. I think that learned men and women should be consulted about the issue and perhaps, if it is something that will benefit the church and its need for vocations, limited acceptance of married me should be considerered.

Peace and Charity,
 
I voted the first one. But if allowed to marry it would be up to the priest rather or not if they want to marry.
 
I voted for the second option. I don’t know if it was out of tradition or not.
 
a few points to clarify

A. The Church would never allow currently celibate Priests to get married. They have already taken a vow of celibacy. Neither the West, nor the East (Both Catholic and Orthodox) have ever allowed celibate Priests to ever get married.

B. Mandatory celibacy in the Latin rite means that Priests must be celibate when they get ordained. However, this is merely a discipline and the Church can abolish this, meaning that married men can be ordained as Priests. There is historical precedent. In the first several hundre years of Christendom, both the East AND the West ordained married men to the Priesthood. The Eastern Catholic Priests, as fully Catholic (sometimes more so LOL) than the Latin Catholic Priests have frequently been married men. There are a few Anglican Use Catholic Parishes run by Priests who are married men. This is a recension of the Latin Rite.
There are equal reasons to keep celibacy and to abolish it. Whatever choice is completely licit and acceptable.

The financial reason against it is actually not a strong argument at all. Orthodox, Eastern Catholic, and Anglican Use Priests are extremely productive, with presbyteras and children. Theological arguments for celibacy are stronger.
 
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BillyT92679:
a few points to clarify

A. The Church would never allow currently celibate Priests to get married. They have already taken a vow of celibacy. Neither the West, nor the East (Both Catholic and Orthodox) have ever allowed celibate Priests to ever get married.

B. Mandatory celibacy in the Latin rite means that Priests must be celibate when they get ordained. However, this is merely a discipline and the Church can abolish this, meaning that married men can be ordained as Priests. There is historical precedent. In the first several hundre years of Christendom, both the East AND the West ordained married men to the Priesthood. The Eastern Catholic Priests, as fully Catholic (sometimes more so LOL) than the Latin Catholic Priests have frequently been married men. There are a few Anglican Use Catholic Parishes run by Priests who are married men. This is a recension of the Latin Rite.
There are equal reasons to keep celibacy and to abolish it. Whatever choice is completely licit and acceptable.

The financial reason against it is actually not a strong argument at all. Orthodox, Eastern Catholic, and Anglican Use Priests are extremely productive, with presbyteras and children. Theological arguments for celibacy are stronger.
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The “Church” already has married priests. Obviously, you may be referring to the Latin Rite, where celibacy is the rule.

A priest told me that priests do not take “vows” of celibacy. He said, it’s only a promise.
 
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BayCityRickL:
The “Church” already has married priests. Obviously, you may be referring to the Latin Rite, where celibacy is the rule.

A priest told me that priests do not take “vows” of celibacy. He said, it’s only a promise.
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Quite honestly I think the role of a priest is not the same as a Protestant pastor. Don’t they take vows of poverty too? I can imagine a woman being married to a priest who can’t own any substantial property.

FWIW I’ve seen several interviews with converts who became priests after marriage and they don’t seem to function as parish priests. IOW they have other duties, in education, outreach, parish administration. I dunno, it would seem really odd to have a married parish priest and I can’t imagine what woman would want to be married to a parish priest. They just are not around the house much.

Lisa N
 
There was a married priest at Franciscan University while I was there. He was ordained(I don’t know if that’s the right word when one is a member of another denomination) in another denomination, but I don’t remember which one. When he and his wife converted, he was allowed to be a married Catholic priest. A friend of mine told me that the priest said that being married and a priest was very difficult.

So, while I believe that it could be possible, it is not practical.
 
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