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To: jonrick46
Christ said it was never intended to be mandatory but was for a few chosen by God.

Any man who is considering the priesthood knows full well that celibacy is part of the deal. There are many years of preparation, so a man has many chances to change his mind. I'd say that by the time a man is ordained, he CAN be considered 'chosen by God'.

37 posted on 03/31/2013 5:40:52 PM PDT by SuziQ
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To: SuziQ

There are strong arguments for celibacy as a discipline that strengthens the man who succeeds in becoming one of those “chosen.” It is like a boot camp for learning the self sacrifice of Christ. There are other ways to get the boot camp.

The Church has had many traditions that have gone by the wayside of history. One of them was the marriage of priests. It was not until the eleventh century that the Second Lateran Council laid down in writing for the first time that priests should not marry nor have sex. It established that clerical celibacy became effectively obligatory. What I would like to see is this mandate become a matter of choice. We have church deacons who are married that are very effective in the church. Why not offer them the seminary training and let them become priests?

It has been found that when Pope Benedict XVI allowed married Lutheran and Anglican clergy to become Catholic priests, they were found to be very effective priests. Why not learn from this lesson? There has to be ways to train a priest how to become the Bride of Christ in a non symbolic manner without the indoctrination process it has used throughout the centuries.


41 posted on 03/31/2013 6:42:10 PM PDT by jonrick46 (The opium of Communists: other people's money.)
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