[gcruse]

Back in the nineties, I remember reading about a group of cloistered nuns in Upstate New York(?) who were considering what sort of sacrifice they wanted to make in thanks for the Pope coming to the US for a visit.  They finally decided that they would give up the pleasure of going to see the Pope while he was in the US.
So they remained in their cloister the entire time the Pope was in the country, no doubt in glorious self-satisfaction.  The Pope never saw them and went back to the Vatican as if the nuns never existed.
Pointless exercises in self denial would be pleasing to only the pettiest of gods. 

Giving up a great part of what it means to be human by forgoing sex for a lifetime thinking God will be pleased runs afoul of the nature of grace, for one thing.  God's redemption isn't bought with deeds.  The underlying assumption is that there is something wicked in the reproduction of the species that earns favor by being left aside.  Surely Jesus wasn't the Pecksniffian centuries of navel-gazers have dumped onto his followers

[ninenot]

..and certainly you would not dismiss an evangelical counsel as being "Pecksniffian," would you?

[BlessedBeGod]

Giving up a great part of what it means to be human by forgoing sex for a lifetime...

You mean like Jesus did?

[BlackElk]

GC: Isn't it a good thing that the Roman Catholic Church drafts no one? That way you may continue to be a chronic malcontent and complainer OUTSIDE of the Church which you clearly fail to comprehend and we Catholics can recognize your irrelevancy. If you are not Catholic, why on earth do you care how we govern our own Church and whatever makes you think it is is any of your business?

Your first two paragraphs make no sense whatsoever. If the nuns are cloistered, they are not leaving cloister in any event except, for medical treatments or severe family emergencies. They would not be galavanting around the countryside even to see the pope any more than they would be leving cloister to take in a basketball game.

If, as is apparently the case, you imagine yorself Christian as suggested by the reformationist tone of your third paragraph, you are an embarassment to the genuine reformed Christians and you ought to take your ignorant revulsion for the freely chosen celibacy of Catholic priests and nuns to St. Paul or directly to God, the real author of Paul's epistles.

After you are gone, the RCC will still flourish and you will be forgotten soon enough. At least the first part of that is a guarantee on the Highest Authority. The second part is the logical corollary. Meanwhile, MYOB.

[Snuffington]

Pointless exercises in self denial would be pleasing to only the pettiest of gods.

Taken a poll among the gods to determine that? Or are you claiming the divine wisdom for yourself? ;-)

Seriously, self-denial has a rich history in virtually all religious traditions, from basic animism through today's major faiths. Before dismissing it as "pointless," you ought to learn what others have personally gotten from it. It's not as pointless as you seem to assume.

[Scenic Sounds]

Giving up a great part of what it means to be human by forgoing sex for a lifetime thinking God will be pleased runs afoul of the nature of grace, for one thing.

I'm pretty sympathetic with those who stumble in this area. ;-)

[Romulus]

no doubt in glorious self-satisfaction.

Considering the evident pleasure it gives you to say this, I suspect the self-satisfaction lies elsewhere.

The Pope never saw them and went back to the Vatican as if the nuns never existed.

Fortunately both Pope and nuns posess the spiritual maturity to understand that the Church isn't all about them. They realise, in a way you comprehend not at all, that seeing the pope in the flesh while a nice thing is no substitute for their eternal communion with each other, and with millions more, in Christ. Their decision not to travel to see him is a gift to the whole Church because it's an affirmation that needs to be made an given witness, of our bond in the Mystical Body. Facts like these may be of no interest to you, but they exist nevertheless.

Pointless exercises in self denial would be pleasing to only the pettiest of gods.

God is already perfect. He has no need for anything, much less our feeble gestures of self-denial. God favors self-denial not because he gets something from it, but because it's good for us. It's a vital spiritual tool in the service of conversion.

God's redemption isn't bought with deeds.

Quite right. And too many Christians are led astray by transactional models of man's dealings with God. God's call to man is not to appease him or take advantage of something he bought for us; it's to become like him, holy -- not enjoying our juridically justified selves, but enjoying a share in his very life.

Giving up a great part of what it means to be human by forgoing sex for a lifetime

To say that we're incapable of giving up sex is to make us less than human. The decision to answer a call to chastity is a function of reason -- an eminently human faculty. Far from condemning sex, the Church celebrates it by proclaiming its role to be within marriage. In its proper use, the Church declares, the marital act is sacramental -- which is to say, it serves to reveal God and his ways to man.

[RobbyS]

The underlying assumption is that there is something wicked in the reproduction of the species that earns favor by being left aside. How can what has been continually called heresy by the Church be the "underlying assumption" of monasticism? The "crusade" against the Albi was undertaking to stamp out precisely that false teaching. The idea of the nun as the bride of Christ is founded on the notion that they must give up all to follow him, including the joy of having children.

[Antoninus]

The underlying assumption is that there is something wicked in the reproduction of the species that earns favor by being left aside.  Surely Jesus wasn't the Pecksniffian centuries of navel-gazers have dumped onto his followers

I guess Jesus himself being celibate gives lie to your idiotic statement. Back under your rock. Let us know when you become a Catholic so we can start caring about your opinion.

[stripes1776]

Giving up a great part of what it means to be human by forgoing sex for a lifetime thinking God will be pleased runs afoul of the nature of grace, for one thing.

It depends on your understanding of sacrifice and grace. For some people, sacrifice is giving up. For others, it is giving to. Only those who have experieced grace can return it.