Catholic priests urge Church to reconsider celibacy rules

Australian Broadcasting Co. ^ | January 26, 2005 | Nick Grimm

[johniegrad]

C'mere.

[kellynla]

BTTT

[Damifino]

Not a Catholic but this does not help The Church.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Sacrilege.

The Apostle Peter was not married...

...wait a minute.

[Lovebloggers]

They should be allowed to marry. It will never happen though.

[isthisnickcool]

When I was in Catholic high school we had a couple of priests that were real skirt chasers. The problem was that they were chasing the senior girls. A couple eventually left the priesthood and were later married.

We also had some priests in the ol' rectory that were celibate when it came to women but not with each other. Some referred to them as being "celibutt in the rectumry".

Personally? I think they should be allowed to be married. It would bring females into the picture to keep and eye on things and also make it easier to tell which priests were, let's say, out of the norm.

[Lekker 1]

Rome,

And while you're at it, let's revisit the whole monogamy thing...and maybe meat on Fridays...and...

Love, the "dwindling ranks"

[kellynla]

may I ask how you knew that all these priests were not celibate?
were you in the room?

[RexBeach]

Look, just because is guy is married doesn't mean that he will be able to do a better job counseling a wife and husband having difficulty in their marriage.

But the ability for Catholic priests to marry couldn't hurt recruitment in America. My God, I think they are something like 29-thousand parish priests in all of the US, and only 300 or 400 of them are UNDER the age of 30.

Some day, I am certain, Catholic priests will be allowed to marry. But not soon.

[Lekker 1]

...may I ask how you knew that all these priests were not celibate? were you in the room?

...first "hand" experience?

[superiorslots]

As a catholic I don't have a problem with allowing priest to marry. I hung around a guy in hs who really wanted(and still does want to become a priest) However he met a girl in hs and they have been married for 24 years now. He said he would quit his job tomorrow to become a priest if allowed.

[Tanniker Smith]

Yeah, we gotta get rid of that celibacy thing. The mainstream media needs new headlines:

"Catholic Priest Caught in Adultery Scandal"
"Father Is An Dead-Beat Dad"
"Ex-wife Wants Half of Diocese"
"Padre Pounds Pretty Little Princess"
...

You get the idea: they'll be looking for that first extra-marital affair, divorce, spousal abuse, etc. to give new fresh black eyes to the Catholic Church.

TS

[DarkSavant]

May, it's tough, but a priest's job is supposed to be. It's showing an utter detachment to your own wishes so you can minister to your flock better. As to whether it should be overturned, I'm really undecided, there will be more priests then, but it is also opening the door more more leftism a la Vatican II.

Personally, if priests could marry, I would be strongly tempted to join the priesthood. As it is as a twenty three year old male, women unfortunately clutter up way too much of my mind, and I don't know if I could let them go to be effective. We'll see what tomorrow brings I guess.

[mike182d]

It has been, but it hasn't been for the whole history of the church. Half the history of the church has been married clergy, and the clergy in the beginning were married. Peter had his wife – the first Apostle. So, it's never been a restrictor for a long time within the church.

There's two sides to this coin: half the history of the Church has been celibate clergy as St. Paul proclaimed the beauty of it.

There are several hurdles that these priests cannot jump:
1. The defining vow of a priest is obedience to the Magesterium, not celibacy.

2. Priests are in persona Christi. Thus, as Christ was celibate, and preached that it is better to sacrifice this desire for the sake of the Kingdom, it is logical then that if a priest truly desires to fulfill his role as much as possible, being in persona Christi, and sacrifice the whole of his life for the sake of the kingdom it is necessary for him to be celibate.

There are no theological or spiritual "pro's" that these priests can offer for being married. The best they can offer is "well, its been done in the past" and this leads me to seriously question their intent and their commitment to both Christ and His Church.

[Lekker 1]

So he could just renounce his membership for a day, get married, then convert back. Problem solved. Seems that God would want people to comply with His law rather than vice versa. I mean, if we are gonna tailor a religion to what is convenient, let's just start from scratch.

[mike182d]

This has nothing to do with recruitment and nothing to do with "understanding married couples" in your parish...

Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body demonstrates that it is possible for a celibate man to understand human sexuality more than married people themselves as all truths of the human condition are based upon objective Truths, not subjective experience.

[DarkSavant]

*shudder*

[Phantom Lord]

You get the idea: they'll be looking for that first extra-marital affair, divorce, spousal abuse, etc. to give new fresh black eyes to the Catholic Church

Ya. They should just stick to molesting little boys and covering it up at all levels.

[Giliad]

It wasn't ALL the medias fault for the church's black eye. They didn't make it up. The "scandal" was there without the media's help, they just exposed it (not saying they didn't enjoy it). Maybe allowing marriage would eliminate some of that. Let's not be like the Demonrats and blame our problems on everyone else.