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To: Trapped Behind Enemy Lines
As I have stated, since the clergy was married for the first ten centuries of Church history, it is the more traditional position.

False statement. Celibacy was the practice in the west from Apostolic times. Exceptions were in violation to this ancient norm.

46 posted on 06/12/2015 11:22:46 AM PDT by Petrosius
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To: Petrosius

Wrong as usual.

“The first Pope, St. Peter the Apostle, was married. So were four other Popes. Eleven more Popes were the sons of other Popes or clergy. Celibacy was optional for priests until it was voted a Vatican rule at the First Latern Council of 1123.”

New York Daily News 3/13/2015

Further suggested reading: A Complete History of the Catholic Church to Present Day. By Rev. John Laux (A Catholic priest btw):

“It is said on good authority that, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, half of the priests, in some countries more than half,...lived openly as fathers of families.”

In many countries celibacy was never taken seriously. In the East where Orthodox Church held sway, priests have always been permitted to be married. Even in western countries like England, in the 16th century you had people like Cardinal Wolsey, the most powerful Catholic prelate in the country living quite openly with his common law wife and two children.


48 posted on 06/12/2015 12:26:05 PM PDT by Trapped Behind Enemy Lines
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