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To: ladysusan
It's not impossible, sinkspur. But it does have consequences.

Like what? Service? Mother Teresa renounced sexual relations and founded a worldwide order of nuns who work with the poorest of the poor.

Do not denigrate celibacy simply because you are not called to it.

The Catholic Church forces men into celibacy who are not called to it, in order to be priests. There can be dire consequences there.

But there are true celibates, susan. Ghandi lived as a celibate for most of his life, though he was married. The Dali Lama has lived celibacy as well.

Are these "perverts"?

74 posted on 08/01/2003 10:04:24 PM PDT by sinkspur ("I will be allowed to fulfill my destiny!" George C. Scott as "PATTON.")
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To: sinkspur
Their deeds are not necessarily reflective of their public celibacy.

It did not make their deeds greater or poorer.
76 posted on 08/01/2003 10:07:37 PM PDT by Bluntpoint
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To: sinkspur
Like what? Service?

No, sinkspur. Like a profound disconnect from the real, sexually grounded lives of real men and women. Biological life begins with sexuality no matter how psychotically certain clergy wish to deny that simple fact. This is God's plan and design, like it or not, take it or leave it. Love and death, sinkspur... love or die. God's command. This is not an abstraction on the genetic nor the psychological planes.

When the ground of all physical life is simply denied, it leaves an emotional and psychological, and if I may, a spiritual vacuum. This is then filled with all manner of archaic and chaotic fantasies about sexuality and the procreative function, as I stated earlier. Where infantile fantasy holds sway there can be no normal emotional and psychological development. This invites the development of other expressions in its place. Some are altruistic, some are decidedly not. The occasional saint you cite who succeedes in holding off orgasm for their entire life is the exception and not the rule. (I have heard that Mother Teresa was a true ***** to the women who worked with her, by the way. I tend to believe it. After all, what was it Jung said? "Fanaticism is only compensated doubt.")

85 posted on 08/01/2003 10:20:40 PM PDT by ladysusan (The witnesses still breathe.)
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To: sinkspur
The Catholic Church forces men into celibacy who are not called to it, in order to be priests. There can be dire consequences there.

Following a vocation is a free choice. The Catholic Church forces no one to be a priest, therefore it forces no one to be celibate.

In fact, a seminarian spends four to eight years discerning whether he does, in fact, have a calling. The calling has to be both subjective and objective. An example of subjective calling is "I feel God is calling me to serve him as a priest." But this is not enough, the seminarian must have the objective traits necessary to become a priest. For example, the candidate must be a man of prayer and must have the necessary virtues to be capable to living out his commitment, such as self-control, fear of God and purity of heart.

A candidate who has aberrant sexual behaviors or sexual addictions certainly does not meet the objective criteria to become a priest and nobody will force him.

103 posted on 08/01/2003 11:04:56 PM PDT by miltonim
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To: sinkspur
Thank you. Additionally, what about single people who chose to live celibate lives and remain single? I say not I lived a single celibate life till 34 and it was not a dysfuntional time.
120 posted on 08/02/2003 7:04:04 AM PDT by Mfkmmof4
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