someperson555 #30
Priestly continence was never required from the beginning. You are misrepresenting church history!
Totally false.
The reality is that priestly continence is an Apostolic Norm. From the beginning, continence was required for priest and bishop – for Early Church Tradition the most important studies are:
Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy, by Fr. Christian Cochini, S.J.(Ignatius, San Francisco, 1990);
The Case for Clerical Celibacy, by Alfons Maria Cardinal Stickler (Ignatius, San Francisco, 1995);
Celibacy in the Early Church, by Fr. Stefan Heid, (Ignatius, San Francisco, 2000).
There is no question that Priestly continence was the norm from the beginning and there were no legitimate exceptions.
Here is more testimony to the truth:
Fr. George William Rutler, in an article entitled *A Consistent theology of clerical celibacy *(
Homiletic & Pastoral Review, Feb. 1989), notes that “Virginity and celibacy were not synonymous in the original ecclesiastical institution of celibacy. Those clerics whose marriages were recognized by the Church, and they were many, were expected to abstain from conjugal union after ordination. The new archeology shows that this was the case for all the Eastern Churches in the earliest centuries, and in a mitigated form later. In the Latin Church this was the clear rule throughout the first millenium, culminating in the laws of the Gregorian reform, especially as found in the First Lateran Council of 1123, and the Second Lateran Council of 1139…The discipline of the Second Lateran Council explicitly forbidding marriage after ordination was not an innovation in the observance of continence. Its prohibition of clerical marriage was only a regulation ensuring that the apostolic norm of abstinence would be better observed.”
Priestly Celibacy and Its Roots in Christ … Interview with Fr McGovern
National Catholic REGISTER, May 19-25, 2002
“Recent scholarship on the history of celibacy in both the Easter and Western Church has shown that there is a considerable body of evidence in favour of the argument that priestly celibacy is of apostolic origin, based on Christ’s invitation to the Twelve to leave all things and follow him (cf. Mt 19:29). [5] Indeed, John Paul II points out in his 1979 Holy Thursday Letter to Priests that celibacy is so closely linked to the language of the Gospel that it refers back to the teaching of Christ and to apostolic tradition.”
There is nothing in the bible about contraception yet you think its wrong any way (but that’s a different debate for a different time)
False.
We do know for certain that God is against contraception. God killed Onan for contraception (Gen 38:8-10)
We know for certain that Christ is the Son of God.
We know for certain that Christ established His Church with His authority and power to teach only truth.
We know for certain that Christ gave Peter primacy and infallibility to teach on faith and morals, protected by the Holy Spirit from error.
We know that “opinions”, wishes, desires, prejudices, feelings, have no place against truth.
We know that the definitions against every form of contraception are infallible in *Casti Connubii *(Pius XI, 1930), and *Humanae Vitae *(Paul VI, 1968).
We know the state of dissenters: Christ, Himself, warned “if he refuses to hear even the Church let him be like the heathen and a publican.” (Mt 18:17)
both priests and bishops should be able to have sex with their wives.