Posted on 02/02/2005 6:58:04 AM PST by Salvation
Code: ZE05020104
Date: 2005-02-01
Make Sure Seminarians Can Live in Celibacy, Says Pope
Suggests That Specialists Be Used to Verify This
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 1, 2005 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II says the emotional maturity of candidates for the priesthood, and their ability to live in celibacy, must be verified from the moment they enter the seminary.
The Pope made this proposal in the message he sent today to Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, on the occasion of the Vatican dicastery's plenary session in Rome.
"Already from the moment of the admission of young men to the seminary, their ability to live in celibacy must be carefully verified so that, before ordination, they will develop a moral certitude about their emotional and sexual maturity," wrote the Holy Father, who was unable to attend the session because of the flu.
The Congregation for Catholic Education has the authority to watch over the formation imparted in seminaries, making use in particular of the Office for Seminaries which, among other things, carries out apostolic visits to them.
In his message, John Paul II warned implicitly about the danger of focusing only on the academic formation of future priests.
"The educational plan in seminaries" must take into account "the complementarity of the four dimensions of formation: human, intellectual, spiritual and pastoral," he said, citing his 1992 apostolic exhortation "Pastores Dabo Vobis."
"In light of the present social and cultural changes, it might be useful on occasions that educators make use of the work of competent specialists to help seminarians understand more profoundly the exigencies of the priesthood, recognizing in celibacy a gift of love to the Lord and to brethren," the Pope wrote.
With this additional help, he stated, seminarians will have, before their ordination, the necessary "emotional and sexual maturity."
Sounds great to me.
Any other opinions out there?
Yes. Rule One: No Poofters!
Emotional and sexual maturity?
This will rule out most men under 25.
I've had several friends discern the priesthood and several others that went into the seminary (all under 25).
I think what the Pope is talking about is not just those with obvious sexual issues, but those who have problems controlling their sexual desire and, in all sincerity, feel the priesthood and celibate life is the answer. In all actuality, this only exacerbates the problem.
The problem is, as we saw from Michael Rose's book, some of the seminary gatekeepers have interpreted "emotional maturity" to mean "willing to dissent from Church teaching on sexual matters."
I think that situation has improved somewhat in recent years, though.
Excerpt from the taped interview of Fr. Malachi Martin by Bernard Janzen :The Eternal War: the Priesthood in Crisis:
(transcription by me Gerard P)
"...the idea is to do away with the priesthood. The thing that really militates against the popular taste today about priesthood is celibacy. They regard nowadays, in the society in which we live, the expression of sexuality whether within marriage...outside of marriage whether by yourself or with somebody of the same sex, or with an animal is regarded as quite normal.... If you don't "frighten the horses" so to speak. Provided you don't violate any "rule of decent living".
The idea that men, young men of twenty say,..take a vow of celibacy. That they will never get married. And that they can keep that without getting twisted and psychologically moronic and finally ending up in pedophilia or sadism or in some twisted psychology. That is the normal attitude towards priests today. So the idea of Roman Catholic celibacy is something that is utterly alien to the mind.
Why? Because the idea of priesthood is. And this is where the great lack in teaching in seminaries and in the Catholic populace lies.
You see...a priest..Christ was once asked, (they pointed out a eunuch to him... a eunuch was somebody who accidentally or for some reason or another couldn't have sex. His genitals were destroyed or something.) And somebody said to him, "Lord what do you think of the eunuch? And he said,"There are three kinds of eunuchs. There's the man who's born like that from nature." ( Deficient in other words, he hasn't got the where-with-all). "There's the one who men made a eunuch." (Because they used to castrate people to make them eunuchs because eunuchs are very useful in palaces. 'cause they wouldn't touch the women and they were very good guards. And eunuchs always developed a very great cruelty. I suppose in reaction to their mutilation. And also if you did that, the voice remained high-pitched and beautiful through teenage years. And then he said, "There is a third kind of eunuch who does it to himself for the sake of the kingdom of God. He said, very mysteriously, "whoever understands, let him understand," [Fr. Martin then quotes the phrase aloud in Latin]....meaning there is a very deep mystery.
The mystery is this: I can look on my celibacy if I am a priest, as a chastity belt. And the Church has locked it and thrown away the key. In that case then, I'm just somebody deprived of what I should have a right to by a greater force that's thrown away the key.
That's not celibacy at all. That is enforced continence.
I can look on celibacy then as something acceptable to the Church but a pain in the neck or a pain somewhere else. I still am very far from it.
The celibate is somebody who says to himself or herself (a nun), "My greatest power of love is in reproduction and in living with another human being. And in having children and in exchanging our love and warmth and friendship and confidence. And giving each other the intimacy of our very being, soul and body, which a true marriage does.
But, I will give that up because..when I become a priest, Christ puts a seal on my soul. The seal of his priesthood. And that seal cordons me off for a higher destiny. And the destiny is to have a very, very particular union with God, with Christ.
And that union is the union of somebody who is going to hold God's body in his hands at Mass. And is going to be a special emissary bringing blessing and shriving people from their sins and healing their souls. That's what true celibacy is. It's a segregation of your soul from all the lovely things in life that human love can bring and marriage can bring.
By the way, Look. It also has its ills and its difficulties but in general, it's regarded as a great benefit to be married. Or to live with somebody as we do nowadays. [sarcasm from Fr. Martin]
But to cut that off deliberately and to do it lovingly and to make it a positive contribution, and to devote all the energies that nature has given us for human love... to devote them to Christ. And to concentrate all that on..the Sacrifice of Christ and the preaching of his Gospel and the transmission of his message of love and salvation to souls and healing them and shriving them and helping them supporting them guiding them and welcoming them to the truth. That is the highest vocation a man can have.
Similarly with a nun who takes a vow of chastity. The same thing, She says to herself, "I'm going to imitate Our Lady, who is a virgin. who is the Mother of God. I'm going to have spiritual children and most of Our Lady's children are spiritual. (She had only one child of her own who was called Jesus.) But, I'm going to have those children by my prayers and by my identity with the great mother: The Mother of God.
And I'm going to do all that by renouncing this: Not because it's ill or bad. It's not bad, It's good. God made it. It's good, he said, 'Increase and multiply, love each other, be one flesh. It's a sacrament in the New Covenant. But I'm going to renounce that because I'm going to have a greater identification with Our Lady because God is calling me to that. And all the love and sympathy and empathy and the perceptiveness of love, I'm going to transfer that to Our Lady and Our Lord. And I'm going to make that my special sacrifice."
And in the beginning it is a sacrifice. And then, with the passage of time and fidelity, suddenly...this flower blooms in their souls.
And they achieve this marvelous tranquility and this marvelous warmth that people always saw in the traditional priest. This amazing power to get inside you. This light, this feeling that they were there for you. They weren't riven in their sympathies. And they were there for you because Christ was their man, Christ was their King, Christ was their High Priest. That idea of priesthood....you won't find that anywhere today in Catholic manuals or preached in sermons or anything like that. Celibacy is regarded as...like Fish on Friday , a law we want to change and do away with."
Very true.
You transcribed all that?
No, Gerard P. did. I guess I didn't make that clear enough, sorry. What did you think?
God sanctifies marriage as He does life. I just couldn't entrust aspects of my soul to what I must regard as moral stuntedness by design.
As a non-Jew in synagogue, when I knew the fine rabbi's marriage had somehow failed, even without knowing the reasons, it cost my spirit in some sense of tragedy. Though I'd yet sense more humanity in his trying to pick up the pieces than I would in his cloistering himself away.
I so feel that God would have us involved in this fuller sense of what it means to be human.
Thanks for the voice.
Read post #7, maybe you'll be able to understand it better, if not agree with it.
I thought you were listening to the CD or tape and typing. I've done that with music before. Takes a long time.
Gerard P. must have done just that, not me, too tedious.:-)
But what did you think of the explanation of celibacy? That was what I was really asking you.
HAHA! The Bruces'?
Most men. Not all though.
So you are implying that the Catholic Church derives from Satan?
**The celibate is somebody who says to himself or herself (a nun), "My greatest power of love is in reproduction and in living with another human being. And in having children and in exchanging our love and warmth and friendship and confidence. And giving each other the intimacy of our very being, soul and body, which a true marriage does.
But, I will give that up because..when I become a priest, Christ puts a seal on my soul. The seal of his priesthood. And that seal cordons me off for a higher destiny. And the destiny is to have a very, very particular union with God, with Christ.**
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