Posted on 09/27/2016 2:51:28 PM PDT by heterosupremacist
As we have reported before, the topic of married priests seems to be on the agenda of Pope Francis. Not only did Sandro Magister report on this matter right after the second Synod on the Family last year, but also Bishop Erwin Kräutler of Brazil declared, after his private audience with Pope Francis in 2014, that the pope had encouraged him to further explore this matter and to be “courageous” in doing so.
This month of September has seen again two more articles announcing that Pope Francis intends to foster the idea and practice of married priests: one having been written by Marco Tosatti; the other by Sandro Magister.
Tosatti, the Italian Vatican specialist, reported on 7 September on some initiatives recently taken by the 82-year-old Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy. Tosatti reports that there is in the air an upcoming local Synod of the dioceses of the Amazon which might discuss the matter of “transforming permanent deacons into ‘viri probati‘” — which Tosatti defines as “a kind of lay administrator of the Sacraments as a substitute for priests.”
(Excerpt) Read more at onepeterfive.com ...
Magister points out that, interestingly, not long before Hummes visit with the pope, a well-informed source had already published in detail in Italy the three sub-themes of the next Synod of Bishops on “the ordained ministry in the Church,” to include “the possibility of a female diaconate.”
It seems now that “remarried” divorcees are indeed more likely to be admitted to the Sacraments, especially Holy Communion, the next field of purported reform will be the priesthood. Thus we all should fittingly prepare ourselves for the next doctrinal and disciplinary battle.
Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, one of the most outspoken defenders of the indissolubility of marriage, has already taken up this next challenge. He has just published an article which largely stems from a foreword that he had written a few years ago for a book in defense of priestly celibacy. Since he is a Church historian – and the former President of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences – he therefore probably has the best reputation and qualification to do so.
In a recent article, I myself have translated and presented the main arguments of his foreword to that 2011 book on celibacy, entitled Reizthema Zölibat: Pressestimmen (The Provocative Topic of Celibacy: Press Commentaries), which was published by the German publishing house fe-medienverlag.
Therein the German cardinal makes it clear that celibacy stems right from Holy Scripture and the Apostolic Tradition, and that it has been always upheld by the Catholic Church, even if there were at times grave violations of this priestly celibacy. In the conclusion of his introductory essay, Cardinal Brandmüller also makes it clear that priestly celibacy is part of the apostolic patrimony that cannot be given up for any reason. He shows that one needs to remind Catholics “of the binding character of the apostolic traditions” and continues, as follows: “It might be helpful in this context to raise the question as to whether it would be possible to abolish – with the help of a Council – the celebration of Sunday which, by the way, has much less of a Biblical foundation than celibacy.”
Cardinal Brandmüller concludes his well-researched defense of priestly celibacy with some beautiful words:
Furthermore, celibacy – as well as virginity – chosen for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven will always be a stumbling block for those with only a secular understanding of life. Jesus Himself had already spoken on this matter, when he said: ‘He who is able to receive it, let him receive it.’
The 87-year-old cardinal is now even more to be praised for his courage and his purposive stamina. One wonders: who else will come to the aid of one of the essential parts of the Church’s Faith, Life and Practice? What will be left if the priesthood – the pillar of the Catholic Church – comes to be further attenuated and even hollowed out?
People may whine at me for this but I will say it....
I would rather see married men as priests than single old hag lesbians who have had their minds fall out of their heads ( see Sweden, Finland, Germany, etc...)
One of the best catholic priests we ever had was a man who was married, had kids, then later in life when he was in his 40’s and his children were raised he lost his wife to cancer and he felt a calling a became a catholic priest. He was so great because he could actually RELATE to the family issues issues of his flock.
We need something to counter the clip haired crazy lesbian faith traitors that are installed as priests in the other branches of Christianity.
1 Timothy 3:2
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
[ 1 Timothy 3:2
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; ]
There were married catholic priests until Rome saw them as a threat due to the “family lineage” issue and put pressure on the church for only single men to be priests.
Thank you for sharing that. I agree.
Yes. But I’ll put that one little verse against the cardinal’s whole book and 1000 years of tradition and I win the debate.
And some of the Pope’s had mistresses and children.
I’m sure that made them more understanding of the laity.
LOL
The Church in the West had to wage a protracted struggle against secular power. Bishops and abbots owned estates, whose income constituted the main support of the Church, but as owners of land in the realm, there were constantly pressured to become mere vassals to the king and way too enmeshed with the political nobility. (Look up “Investiture Controversy” and you will see that reforming popes struggled AGAINST this for centuries.)
If a bishop had sons and daughters, he’d be even more deeply caught up in dynastic marriage politics: marrying this daughter to that duke, and this son to that princess, and forming alliances with powerful families for all the political/economic/social benefits that would accrue.
Trying to secure the independence of bishops from the temporal Powers That Be was a huge job. It took a millennium to settle and it’s not what I’d call “settled” even yet. But, for many centuries in the history of the Church, marriages would have forced priests and, even more so, bishops and abbots, to become even more deeply enmeshed in securing titles of nobility, access to estates and lands, royal alliances and the rest of it for all their children.
The Church was trying to steer clear of that whole web of worldly entanglements. Celibacy --- the avoidance of ongoing dynastic interconnections --- became an honorable way to secure more political independence from worldly preoccupations and temporal power, and hence more freedom to be "in this world but not of it."
It has also the value of "eschatological witness," which means they were dramatically demonstrating that they expected to receive full recompense in the next world, not this one. Check out Mark 10:29-30 (Link)
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