Posted on 05/06/2015 6:38:42 AM PDT by don-o
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis held his weekly General Audience on Wednesday, during which he continued his catechetical reflections on the nature and purpose of marriage in the order of creation and in the Divine plan of salvation. This week, the Holy Father focused specifically on Christian marriage as a Sacrament: an efficacious sign of God’s love for each and every person, for all humanity and for the whole world, a means of grace, and a genuine way of living our common baptismal call to holiness.
“Christian marriage is that sacrament which builds up the community of the Church and of society,” explained Pope Francis through an interpreter in the English-language synopsis of the main catechesis, which he delivered in Italian. “Marriage has been inscribed in creation’s design by God, and, by his grace, countless Christian men and women have lived married life fully,” he continued.
The Holy Father went on to describe marriage as an act of faith in God’s plan for humanity and an act of selfless love. Drawing on the writings of St. Paul the Apostle, the Pope focused especially on the duties of husbands to their wives, saying that married love is an image of the love between Christ and his Church, and that a husband is therefore to love his wife as Christ loved the Church, by giving himself completely for her. “When a man and a woman marry in the Lord, they participate in the missionary life of the Church, by living not only for themselves or their own family, but for all people,” explained Pope Francis. “Therefore,” the summary continued, “the life of the Church is enriched through every marriage which shows forth this beauty, and is impoverished when marriage is disfigured in any way.”
Pope Francis concluded his remarks by saying that every couple which faithfully and courageously lives the grace of this sacrament assists the Church in offering the gifts of faith, hope and love to all people, and helps others to experience these gifts in their married lives and their families. He prayed that married couples everywhere live this mystery ever more fully, trusting in God’s tenderness and the Church’s maternal care.
Not a male and a male. Not a female and a female.
Thanks for clarifying your Holiness.
The Pope has also recently signaled the Church’s policy of mandatory clerical celibacy is not a dogma or a doctrine and is always subject to change. I hope this happens. I see no reason why Holy Matrimony should be denied to those seeking vocations in the priesthood. There is NOTHING in the Bible requiring such a policy.
There are already Orthodox Churches in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church that allow married priests. The Roman (Latin) Church only instituted celibacy in the 11th Century , but it may have been as early as the Pontificate of St. Leo the Great in the Fifth Century.
Regardless, It is something I think unlikely to change soon. If it does they may find more problems than solutions.
That’s actually better than I expected.
Try finding one liberal of any faith that accepts abortion, ‘gay marriage’ and female clergy but also thinks the Catholic discipline of celibacy is valuable and should be continued. The liberals invariably hate it and constantly howl that it should be ended as soon as possible.
Freegards
My (TN) Catholic parish has 5 clergy: 2 celibate and 3 married.
I see the Diocese of Allentown, PA just ordained 47 permanent deacons: a new record for the U.S., I think.
He may be playing the part of Captain Obvious, here, but doing so is an unfortunate necessity in our depraved 'culture'.
I don’t about that. According to the NY Daily News (7/14/14):
“In translation of a recent interview, the Pope is quoted as saying he will find a solution to the problem of celibacy-—a major shift in the Vatican, which in the past has been intractable on the requirement for priests.”
I would agree with you on this point. It took the Church many centuries to implement the current policy and it will it take a long time to unwind it. Probably it will be done gradually and in baby steps. We already see it happening now. In my archdiocese we already have a large number of married priests. And they do just fine I might add.
But you're right: both the Orthodox and the Eastern Catholics ordain married men to the priesthood.
If they are in full communion with Rome, they are not Orthodox.
That is one argument I hear all of the time. The liberals hate celibacy. Therefore it must be a good policy. The fear is ending celibacy would make the Church more liberal. I would argue the Church is already quite liberal anyways. It is better to consider the merits of the policy. The history of the policy. Why it was enacted to begin. Why it is still needed.
Since priests were married men in the Bible. Since marriage among priests, bishops and many of the early popes was allowed for the first ten centuries of Church history, I could argue a married clergy is actually the more traditional position. However, I really don’t see this as a Democrat versus Republican issue, or a liberal versus conservative issue. I think the policy should be considered on its merits.
Good point.
So a Catholic priest in Eastern Europe or the Middle East is permitted to be married. But a Catholic priest in western Europe or the Western Hemisphere is not permitted to be married. The policy is not universally applied and is flexible according to geographic factors. Another good reason to reconsider it. It is not universally applied.
Not getting into any theology, the wife would become the parish gatekeeper and power player, people would resent and speak against her. His salary would have to be increased substantially to cover another car and insurance. She would not answer to the bishop and because of the amount of time spent with others, the marriage would become strained since a parishioner's call would come before the family plans. Divorces would occur and would present a poor example to the people.
BTW, our very learned pastor gave us four sermons on priestly celibacy from Apostolic times, quite interesting.
Considering why all liberals everywhere invariably despise the Catholic discipline of celibacy is part of considering the argument based on the merits, in my opinion. I don’t want the already too liberal Church to become more liberal.
Freegards
In the area I live we have a married priest. Three or four kids. I asked him what religion he was before his conversion. He said he was a Episcopalian priest, and he said all married priests were Episcopalian.
Well I do like getting into the history of it, I have read many books on the topic. I can find no Biblical reason to pursue the policy. And since no less than the Pope himself has stated the policy is not a dogma or a doctrine of the Church, but rather a discipline, and that policy is always subject to change. I think we can at the very least discuss it and consider its merits.
You bring up the point of economics. A good point btw. Is the Church clinging to celibacy because it doesn’t want to pay its priests more? If so, I would think that is rather shallow reason to continue with the policy. And then there is the argument that priests are overworked and have no time for wives and families. In the wake of the pedophile/homosexual priest scandal I find that hard to believe. They seemed to find time to engage in those activities. Further, if we had more priests, they would be less overworked. Marriage and family help balance a person’s life and keep things grounded. Finally, we do in fact have a number of married priests in my archdiocese, and they do just fine from all that I have observed. And so do Orthodox priests I might further add.
So it's now a distinction between "rites" and not between geographical jurisdictions or even languages.
Of the 22 Churches which comprise Catholicism, 21 will ordain married men to the priesthood. There is just one which has an (almost exclusively) celibate priesthood, and that is the Latin Church. (Which also, confusingly, no longer retains Latin as its predominant liturgical language.)
This is probably more info than you wanted, but my point is that it doesn't seem unreasonable for ONE of the 22 united Catholic Churches to retain its distinctive celibate priesthood. It's for men who have a vocation to celibacy. In the Latin church, married men with a vocation to serve as clergy, become deacons.
Either way, it's a choice, and a vocation. It is imposed on nobody.
You present the best argument for keeping the celibacy policy in place: The concern the Church will get even more liberal and left-wing than it already is. I doubt that. Although I don’t argue that the policy compulsory clerical celibacy causes homosexuality or pedophilia there can be no denial that policy over the centuries helped create an atmosphere and an environment not to mention a rather significant subculture attractive to such individuals.
No not really. If you want to choose the priesthood as your vocation, you are required to make a vow of celibacy and forego marriage and children.
But...what we have discovered in this interesting discussion is that there are loopholes. There are ways around it. You could be married. You could have children. You could first be ordained an Episcopalian, or an Orthodox or an Eastern Catholic rite priest and then convert to being a regular Latin Rite Catholic priest and keep your wife and family. That is the current formula for being both a Catholic priest and a married man. Cumbersome to be sure, but that alone is slowly breaking down the celibacy requirements.
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