Posted on 04/07/2005 5:00:46 AM PDT by Teófilo
But I think it has been perverted and many in the Church view sex, and by extension women, as something evil.
The historical context could go either with celibacy or with married clergy. Has tradition created the celibate priesthood and therefore the sacrifice you describe?
You mean in the context of Protestantism.
"Has tradition created the celibate priesthood and therefore the sacrifice you describe?"
If by tradition you mean Jesus Christ encouraging it, St. Paul encouraging it, numerous Saints and Popes over the centuries encouraging or mandating it, the Holy Spirit guiding the Church into accepting and revering it, then YES!.
We have married clergy in that we deacons in the West and the clergy of the Eastern Churches may be married and then ordained. However, the truly celibate priesthood of the Latin Church is a great gift from God which the rest of us should promote and honour.
"Is it time?
No, it isn't."
And I will happily give thanks and pay heed to the Magisterium of the Church if they continue upholding the current discipline of the Latin Rite, since discernment belongs to the Magisterium.
In Christ,
-Theo
I used to be Catholic; then I read the Bible.
We can well do without married priests.
We can certainly do without laywomen or laymen running parishes.
I can definitely think of some deacons that I would not ever want to be running parishes.
We'll get by because we will be importing actually Catholic Third World priests as necessary until the very promising seminarians of today are ready to lead the AmChurch back to Catholicism. Catholicism and materialism are separate categories. Doctrine and discipline are what count in Catholicism.
Repeat as often as possible. Superb post! Thanks. God bless you and yours.
You mean you were baptized a Catholic and never really learned what Catholicism was. Then somebody with an anti-Catholic agenda decided to pick you off by appealling to your misconceptions and providing erroneous arguments about the Bible.
It's a shame. You were a misinformed Catholic and now you are a misinformed "bible only christian". You have yet to actually meet Christ.
The whole reason for the existence of Protestantism is the printing press. People compared the Scripture with the dogma, observed numerous irreconncilable contradictions, and the rest, regrettably, is history.
Go read it for yourself. Then we'll talk.
Now this much, I agree with. If you can purge the sodomites and replace them with third-world priests, more power to you. The Anglican situation is very instructive here; the sodomites are solely a Western phenomenon (ugh!).
All you are describing is the propaganda that Luther spewed. He was an idiot heretic himself. The Bible belongs to the Catholic Church. What do you think Guttenberg's first printed book was?
You simply don't have a clue.
Learn some truth about Catholicism.
Look, I am not an activitist for this thing, in the sense that I'm not going to defy whatever is the next decision of the Magisterium on the subject by acting like a liberal brat. Whatever the Magisterium finds, is fine with me.
My job-my unrequired, unrequested, unappointed, and maybe ultimately unnecessary job-is to point out possibilities that the Magisterium has legitimately open before it, and ordaining worthy married priests for the Latin Rite is one of them. Let us have this in mind and do not forget it:
- Married priests have been part of the Church for 2,000 years, 1,000 in the Latin Church, and up to this day in the Eastern Church, both those in union with Rome and those in schism.
- Married priests in the Eastern Rite set an example; to deny it is to deny that the Sacraments have any efficacy on them, particularly the graces of ordination and of frequent communion, not to speak of other works of mercy and asceticism.
- Married priests work today in the Latin Rite, following the 1980 permissions granted by the Holy See to returning Anglicans, and later extended to returning Lutherans, Methodists, and even Pentecostalists. They are here with us, *now*, with the permission of the Holy See. What do you suggest the Bishops do with them, should they be "canned out of here?"
- Ordaining married priests will not diminish the value of celibate chastity, in fact, it may exalt it further. Members of regular orders will still be required to remain celibate.
- The risk of a "divorced priest" and the subsequent scandal is a real one; so is the scandal of Catholics lacking priests. I find it illogical to say that "we cannot due something because if we do, we can create another problem." That's called "blowback" and that's a risk that we take in every endeavor in life.
The next Pope will do what the Spirit leads him to do on this and all other issues. I am at peace with whatever he decides to do.
In Christ,
Theo
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