Why do Catholic men shave their faces?

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I haven’t shaved my face since my hair began migrating south from the top of my head to my chin in 1975. Yep, still Catholic and yep, hair still on chin and not on top of head. But then again as Chief Troglodyte, it would be unseemly for me to be clean shaven.
 
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brotherhrolf:
I haven’t shaved my face since my hair began migrating south from the top of my head to my chin in 1975. Yep, still Catholic and yep, hair still on chin and not on top of head. But then again as Chief Troglodyte, it would be unseemly for me to be clean shaven.
A very, very vain confession as to why I have kept my beard for at least 15 years (and I admit to having far, far more hair on top of my head than on my face but admit, too, that even 15 years ago both head and facial hair had long since become far more ‘salt’ than ‘pepper’): when my wife I went to see “The Hunt for Red October” she said to me, “I never noticed how much you look like Sean Connery! If his hair hadn’t been so ‘spiked up’, you two could almost pass as twins!” And as more and more people saw - and have seen since - that movie, I get enough “You look so much like Sean Connery!” comments that had I a dollar (OK, five dollars!) for each one, I would be a wealthy man.

So whenever, these days, I think that maybe I should shave my beard - even if just to get a glimpse of what I would look like without it - I think of the comments I continue to get and think that I would much continue to resemble an ‘old’ “James Bond” than to risk simply looking ‘old’.

We each have small vanities which, I pray, are no sin. My beard is mine. Should the Pope declare tomorrow that henceforth the practice shall be that all Catholics should be clean-shaven, I would get out the beard trimmer, pull off the guard, and go to work on getting rid of the hair on my face: but I admit that I would miss the passing joy of hearing, in the check-out line at the grocery store, “You know I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but has anyone ever told you that you look just like…”…

Lord knows I am a vain old fool.
 
Tantum ergo:
A moot point. The point is that He was considered well groomed, or attractive, by the standards of His contemporaries.
Iheard that a passage in the bible described him as nothing speacial to look at. just ordinary looking man.
 
I have never heard anything about Catholics not having beards… It is tradition as i thought and respectable to be clean and look respectable but have never been told that beard wheren’t allowed. I know many people with beards that are Catholic.
 
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Orionthehunter:
I shave becasue my wife wants me to. I also sleep on the left side of the bed because my wife wants me to. In fact, I do everything because my wife wants me to. For me a more pressing issue than why I shave is whether it is Biblical for me to do whatever my wife wants me to do. She says it is. Should I believe her?

P.S. I’m just glad that I don’t have two wives telling me what to do.
Biblical for you to do whatever she tells you to do? Um, no. Show her Ephesians 5:22-24.

**22 **Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. **23 **For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. **24 **Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

It’s biblical for her to do whatever you tell her to do, not the other way around.

Edit - Incidentally, I don’t have a girlfriend (-:
These days it would probably be impossible to find someone who would live by the above passage.

Ah also, I am a Catholic and I shave when I can be bothered (or when my grandfather tells me to) but sometimes I just let it grow. I am a uni student so no one cares how I look.
 
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Orionthehunter:
I shave becasue my wife wants me to. I also sleep on the left side of the bed because my wife wants me to. In fact, I do everything because my wife wants me to. For me a more pressing issue than why I shave is whether it is Biblical for me to do whatever my wife wants me to do. She says it is. Should I believe her?

P.S. I’m just glad that I don’t have two wives telling me what to do.
LOL :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
 
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Banaticus:
Also, perhaps I should have phrased the question somewhat differently, not in regards to all Catholic men, but priests, etc. So it’s possible that I could see a Catholic Bishop with a beard?
A lot of our monks have chosen to grow a beard, as have most of our Eastern Catholic priests and Bishops.
 
why do Catholic men shave their faces? hmmm!!! In my case even though my facial hair grows rather fast and is uneven to an extreme. it would be an uneven unsymetrical beard to put it very mildly, second with that being said Im job hunting, I dont think that type of beard would look goood in a job interview, I have a part time job at an employer that doesnt allow beards. third when the whiskers get to a ceartain point my face gets itchy and I dont care much to deal with that. most importantly my wife likes me clean shaven. so now I ask you. why did you ask?
 
God created men to have facial hair. I find it hard that it would be offensive to Him. Why would a church even have a requirement of no facial hair??? Makes no sense to me. I know the Catholic church has no requirement of it.

Amie
 
Amie,

ALL men have facial hair? I know quite a few Asians/Native Americans and a lot of blacks who can’t grow a beard… Even a lot of European/White people can’t.
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BeluvdLily:
God created men to have facial hair. I find it hard that it would be offensive to Him. Why would a church even have a requirement of no facial hair??? Makes no sense to me. I know the Catholic church has no requirement of it.

Amie
 
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Banaticus:
My own religion (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints)
Has anyone talked to you about the origin of Mormonism? I was once being recruited heavily by a coworker when I went through an exploratory phase in my youth. As a result I had to read up and study it and oddly enough this training helped me return to my faith of origin.
 
Okay, perhaps ALL men don’t have facial hair but the VAST MAJORITY do need to shave or they will have facial hair. :rolleyes: I think you know what I meant. I don’t believe God would have put it there if it was offensive. No need to split hairs! Pun intended. 😃

Amie
 
I’ve been sporting a beard since 1997. Before that I didn’t wear a beard because I was in nursing school et we weren’t allowed to wear a beard. At my church there are several men who wear beards. I don’t know if it’s because our church is in a farming community, but I know part of mine is from my United Penticostal days and was not allowed to look this handsome. Just Kidding…
 
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