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To: SaltyJoe
"If I were allowed to have a family, the Parish would have to take up a 3rd collection!"

If not a 4th! :-)

According to my Maronite pastor, it is not unusual for parishioners at churches in Lebanon with married clergy, to scrutinize anything new the wife might be wearing, or the children and ponder to what extent their 'donations' paid for it.

The other problem is here in the West. The Eastern christians still take the vow of Matrimony seriously. That is no longer the case here. If we in the West can barely support our celibate clergy, how would we finance those who are married? And what if the marriage fails?

As he explained it, the shift from celibate to married clergy entails a lengthy period of preparation. This is not an overnight decision. Personally, I would be most curious to read financial reports from those Catholic parishes that now support converted, married priests from the Protestant denominations.

6 posted on 10/07/2005 2:58:01 PM PDT by NYer (“Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion")
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To: NYer

"The other problem is here in the West. The Eastern christians still take the vow of Matrimony seriously. That is no longer the case here. If we in the West can barely support our celibate clergy, how would we finance those who are married? And what if the marriage fails?"

I think we could look at how the Orthodox in the U.S. are doing as well.

On a related note, just thinking out of the box a bit, perhaps one way to partly address a couple of problems/concerns is to work on expanding the number of bi-rite eastern priests. A couple of eastern Catholic churches are ordaining married men in the U.S. The major limiting factor for them is economics. The RCC is lacking priests.

Perhaps a uniquely Catholic form of lend-lease is called for? :-)


8 posted on 10/07/2005 3:07:53 PM PDT by RKBA Democrat (Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.)
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