It's a shame that this thread, in which all the posters seem to be Christian and fans of the Pope, became a replay of the reformation. John Paul II transcended all of that, and inspired protestants and jews with his love of humanity. There will always be those who try to divide us because this doctrine or that is not to their liking. We have to always rise above that, while staying true to our own beliefs. Cunningham is just staying true to his beliefs, but his aggressive certitude on an issue that is anything but certain (just ask a married pastor such as yourself if he thinks he's violating Jesus' teaching by not being celibate) is not helpful to having a dialogue.
... is chilling. And he's not the only one.
just ask a married pastor such as yourself
Actually, I'm not a pastor; sorry if I said anything that appeared to imply that. I am married, however, but I was a virgin til age 38 -- so I know something about celibacy... much more than I want to!
The celibacy discipline in the Roman rite of the Roman Catholic Church (and none of the other Catholic rites) is simply a prudential decision of the Church. We do not claim as a Church to follow Luther's innovation of Sola Scriptura, nor Sola Fide, nor Sola Gratia. You may read Paul as advocating married bishops but you may read Paul as encouraging celibate priests. Because your faith apparently rests upon Sola Scriptura, you are looking for some command of Jesus Christ that priests marry or not marry. It has never been that simple in Catholicism. There are many aspects of Catholicism which you might characterize as "traditions of men" that are produced within the Teaching Magisterium of the Church and may or may not be based on Scripture. We neither deny nor regret that.
You are not going to convince any well-catechized Catholic of what we regard as an unneeded adherence to the reformationist formula of Sola Scriptura. We believe that Jesus Christ created the papacy upon Peter and that is a major difference between Catholics and Protestants of good faith. We probably are not going to convince you to accept the Teaching Magisterium. You and we probably agree on 95% of doctrine but ignore those agreements in favor of chewing our respective old slippers out of habit. The differences are important. We have not earned the right to squabble in public in the face of our common secularist and pagan enemies.
Let us unite where, with integrity, we may do so. Let us avoid public squabbling in areas of disagreement no matter how sincere lest we provide undue entertainment to our enemies and His. Let us, imperfect as we all are, do our best to stand with Jesus Christ ever ready to do battle as a united army of the Lord in His service and not our own. Whatever your plan or mine might be, those plans just cannot be as good as His.