Posted on 07/13/2015 9:07:43 AM PDT by Jan_Sobieski
One must understand that mandatory celibacy is not taught in the Bible, nor was it practiced by the apostles. This teaching developed as an integral part of the evolving papal system and gradually became essential to it. The concern was not morality, for celibacy proved to be a veritable cornucopia of evil. In fact, the rule of celibacy was not the prohibition of sex but of marriage. Pope Alexander II (1061-73), for example, refused to discipline a priest who had committed adultery with his father's second wife because he hadn't committed the sin of matrimony. That was the great evil which had to be eliminated for the priesthood to be totally devoted to the Church.
All down through history not only priests and prelates but popes as well had their mistresses and visited prostitutes. Many were homosexuals. No member of the clergy was ever excommunicated for having sex, but thousands have been put out of the priesthood for the scandal of getting married. Why then the strict insistence upon celibacy, even to the present day, if it really doesn't mean abstinence from sex? It is because the rule of celibacy has a very practical and lucrative result for the Church: It leaves priests and especially bishops and popes without families to whom to bequeath property and thereby impoverish the Church. The clergy must have no heirs.
Pope Gregory VII, bemoaning the difficulty in stamping out marriage among priests, declared: "The Church cannot escape from the clutches of the laity unless priests first escape from the clutches of their wives." Here is another vital reason for celibacy: to create a priesthood without the encumbrance (and loving loyalties) of wives and children. Thus fornication and adultery, though forbidden in theory, were preferable to a marriage relationship. Nineteenth-century historian R.W. Thompson explains:
"It was considered absolutely necessary to the perfect working of the papal system that there should organize a compact body of ecclesiastics, destitute of all those generous sympathies which grow alone out of the family relation, that they might be the better fitted to do the work of the popes." (R.W. Thompson, The Papacy and the Civil Power, New York, 1876, p. 443).
Though married men in those early days were allowed to enter the priesthood, they were required to live celibate lives. Pope Leo I (440-61) decreed that married clergy were to treat their wives "as sisters." Few if any Catholics realize that as late as the reign of Pope Gregory VII (1073-85) it was accepted for priests to be married and supposedly live in celibacy with their wives.
Such a requirement was both unnatural and unrealistic. Who could keep such a rule? All over Italy the clerics openly had largely families and no discipline was enacted against them. After all, many of the popes had large families as well and sometime made no secret of it. De Rosa comments:
"This theological confusion in an age of depravity led the clergy, in fifth-century Rome in particular, to become a byword for everything that was gross and perverted. ... When Pope Sixtus III (432-40) was put on trial for seducing a nun, he ably defended himself by quoting Christ's words, `Let him who is without fault among you throw the first stone.'
"...roving monks were proving to be a social menace ... there ... were long periods when many monasteries were nothing but houses of ill repute. ... The second Council of Tours in the year 567 ... publicly admitted there was hardly a cleric anywhere without his wife or mistress" (De Rosa, op. cit., pp. 402-03).
Shorty after the council of Nicaea, Rome began its 1500 year declination from God's Word, even outlawing the Bible in local languages and giving Popes, Bishops, and Priests godlike status in interpreting the scriptures for the laity masses.
The issue of forced priestly celibacy was so contentious in the church that it led to the Great Schism between Eastern Orthodox and the Western Roman Catholic Church in 1053. That said, even though the Eastern Church allows priestly marriage, it still follows its wayward sister, the Roman Catholic Church, in not following God's doctrines and giving its leaders Godlike status to create new precepts and doctrines of man.
The Holy Spirit of God warned the Apostle Paul that in the last days before the return of Jesus Christ, many in the Christian Church would depart from the faith, create their own doctrine, and forbid marriage. No greater description of the Roman Catholic Church exists today...
1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
Money for me, but not for thee. Eh, Frankie baby?
The mandatory celibacy has caused all sorts of problems, not the least of which is filling the leadership ranks with the spiritually sick. Protestants have their own problems too though, like great leadership instability due to too much falling on the shoulders of one person without others around of equal rank and a veto when it all gets to be too much.
“The Holy Spirit of God warned the Apostle Paul that in the last days before the return of Jesus Christ, many in the Christian Church would depart from the faith, create their own doctrine, and forbid marriage. No greater description of the Roman Catholic Church exists today..”
But this essay states these practices began 1000 years ago, so how is that related to the “last days”?
The last days began 1000 years ago?
It has been the last days since Jesus resurrection. However the birth pangs are getting much closer together. The baby is coming soon!
Sure, I agree. The Word of God should be our accountability. A priest or pastor that deviates from God’s Word should be held accountable by the elders and congregation.
BTW- Pretty sure the Whore of Babylon is not the Roman Catholic Church and I think the clue is in the name. Istanbul sits on the requisite number of hills, right?
That kinda has an impact on this controversy, doesn't it?
Celibacy’s Roots and Fruits, and the subtitle is “a woman rides the beast”
Seriously? lol
It is quite true, mandatory clerical celibacy is a Church requirement, not a Biblical requirement. In point of fact, priests were married men in the Bible. They were expected to be married and have families. Marriage among the clergy is specifically permitted in the New Testament 1 Timothy 3: 1-7. Required clerical celibacy was not institutionalized in the Church until the First Lateran Council in 1123. The policy was introduced to confront corruption in the Church, specifically nepotism and simony. It has nothing to do with anything which can be found in scripture. To this day, the policy of compulsory clerical celibacy is considered a discipline, not a dogma or a doctrine of the Church. Therefore the policy is always subject to change. Already married priests are being admitted into the Catholic priesthood. Men who were ordained as priests in other churches and then transferred over to the Catholic Church. There is really nothing wrong with married priests. Hopefully this draconian and unnecessary policy will be repealed entirely some day. It took the Church many centuries to implement compulsory clerical celibacy. It will take time to undo it.
I think the order of Albino Assassin Monks will slay you outright if a Catholic doesn’t become a latin rite priest. So of course it is mandatory celibacy. They also will kill you if you leave the priesthood to get married as well. Again mandatory celibacy. They also usually murder the wives of the married men who become a Catholic priests in the cases of other rites or relaxation of the discipline.
Try finding one liberal of any faith that accepts abortion, ‘gay marriage’ and female clergy but also thinks the Catholic discipline of celibacy is at all valuable and should be continued. Liberals invariably hate it. The liberals in the Catholic Church hate it most of all, and will celebrate the most if the discipline is ended.
And there are reasons for that.
Freegards
You left out the most scandalous secret:
The kidnapping of men and forced vows by the Illuminati Knights Templar.
The order of Albino Assassin Monks hates the Illuminati Knights Templar, but obviously supports their forcing of mandatory celibacy on one and all.
Freegards
Read Revelation 17-18. This where the reference comes from.
It most certainly is. By what evidence do you speak? How many married Priests have you had? The previous pope had an opportunity to end this cursed practice, but he chose to keep it.
Since time immemorial, Rome has been known as the “city on 7 hills”. I do believe that once this Rome enacts its plan, we may see a reunification of the RCC and Eastern Orthodox + Islam. This may be the ultimate “Babylon the Great”. They may even choose Iraq as as a neutral site to run this coming new world religion...
Lol
Do you encourage your teenage children to sleep around before marriage? After all, not to do so is both unnatural and unrealistic.
On Day Star last night, Irvin Baxter demonstrated by way of papal encyclicals and official pronouncements the Vatican’s official support for World Government and the U.N. from Pope Pius XII to the current time. As a Catholic, I found it quite disturbing. Is this the direction where the Holy Spirit is guiding these men? I find the current Pope to be hard core Marxist who politics and economic ideas are even to the Left of the current radical Alinskyite who now occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Lots of cities sit on seven hills. Ancient Rome did, but the Vatican isn't on any of the traditional "seven hills of Rome," which are all on the other side of the Tiber.
Jerusalem is sited on seven hills.
So is Cincinnati, Ohio. So is San Francisco. So is Mecca. So is Teheran.
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