Posted on 08/13/2006 7:31:18 AM PDT by Gamecock
I'm glad these guys are keeping busy.
"In fact, Canon Law says they cannot refuse to ministry to someone who asks (Canon 843)."
That's a distortion. A priest must have faculties to minister to a flock. Someone stripped of those faculties by his bishop CANNOT minister to anyone as a priest unless someone is dying.
I never really cared one way or the other about the issue of celibacy, but I don't think it has a bright future.
The problem for the Catholic hierarchy is that the only experience they have, institutionally speaking, with human sexuality is of the illicit kind.
A priest does take a voluntary vow, but that young man is being asked to give up something that is deeply imbedded, and that really is a gift from God. They're asking him to writhe, and deal with it. Some people can handle the celibacy vow without it producing tumult, as their libidinal drive is marginal, but I think they are indeed in the minority.
I don't see how celibacy is a superior position or produces superior men, I think it produces just the opposite in a lot of cases.
Let men who want to become priests know the joy of human sexuality between man and wife, know the joy, sorrow and suffering of bringing little ones into the world. It can only make them bigger and better men and priests.
I think when people don't have kids they don't make a certain maturation leap, because they've never had the charge of feeding, nuturing, and loving a precious child, all the while putting their own needs and desires last.
I think priests who are allowed to marry and experience bringing a life into the world are at an enormous pastoral advantage. Looking into the face of their child, loving his chubby little hands and feet, noting that he has no neck :), and noting that he is totally defenseless, and totally dependent on his father's (and mother's, of course) love and ability to put him first, will make a better man and better priest out of him.
Celibacy, as a requirement has a tendency to produce depravity. It dates way back. Both Jerome and Augustine have some quotes out there that suggest they didn't have a clue about human sexuality. The quote by Augustine gives me the impression that he was not quite the 'jack the lad' that he is popularly portrayed as, and that in fact he didn't understand what passes between a man and a woman in union.
I read that right after the pederast scandal broke, the Church, I guess that means the bishops here in the U.S., but I'm not sure, commissioned some Kansas City firm to put together an anonymous questionairre to see what the percentage of homosexuals in the church was, and IIRC, the result was 20% which puts the percentage 20 times higher than that of the population at large. The celibacy rule, IMO, makes it very difficult to recruit healthy, well-adjusted men.
I wonder - what kind of damage deposit do they ask you to put down?
And let's not forget the late fees.
I wonder if there are penalties for returning him to a different location?
What's interesting is that there must be a business in renting a priest rather than going through the traditional Catholic Church. One has to wonder why?
I have a cousin-in-law who was married by a defrocked Catholic priest. It wouldn't surprise me if he acquired said priest through this service.
IMO the reason "why" there is a market for this is that you have "customers" who are heathen/pagan & want to stay that way, but they're superstitious enough to want a "real" priest to marry them, "just in case".
A "real" church priest/pastor probably wouldn't sanction such a marriage due to their (im)moral lifestyle, hence the market for Rent-A-Priest.
Your premise is false. All of these men knew going in that celbacy was part of the deal.
To bad they can't be rewound.
I work for a juvenile correctional facility and we have a religious contract with our local Catholic diocese (sp?) to provide Catholic religious services.
However, real (whatever that means) Catholic priests won't come cuz we can't get 20 kids to attend services, so we use volunteers who aren't sanctioned by the Pope.
Why would the Church put up with that? They are, in essence, cuz they know services by voluteers are still being performed.
Would a "real" church sanction an annulment because they've gotten tons and tons of money in donations? ie, Kennedys?
***However, real (whatever that means) Catholic priests won't come cuz we can't get 20 kids to attend services***
One soul isn't worth the effort?
Nope. And they get $200 a service. The Catholic Church diocese says its just not worth the 200 dollars if 20 kids aren't there.
With them, its about getting their money's worth, not the soul saving.
oops local diocese who has the contract
For $100 per day, and a case of really good Cabernet, I will come to your State,County, City, Town, Municipality, and I will not sign legislation and I will execute any Presidential Directive that seems strange
And this week there is a 10% discount on Rent-A-Rabbi.
I've read this allegation repeatedly on FR threads, and never with even a molecule of evidence.
So maybe you're the one who can help me out. Can you give me a figure of how much money (if any) Ted Kennedy (or any other divorced/remarried Kennedy) has given to the Catholic Church?
Are you alleging that a canon lawyer or a judge in a Diocesan Marriage Tribunal has accepted a bribe in order to make a false finding of nullity? Care to name names?
I admit to having a trivial, gossipy interest in the grounds on which Ted Kennedy's annulment was granted. I always imagined that it was because he was a lying son of a $#&%^$ whose vows were judged frauduent because he never intended to have a lifelong, faithful marriage. But I could be wrong. Since you have all the info, could you tell us all about it?
###"The celibacy rule, IMO, makes it very difficult to recruit healthy, well-adjusted men."###
Wrong!
A study this past year of the North American College in Rome. (A Catholic College for new priests) showed that the young priests would not have it any other way than celibacy. Also, compared to 10 years ago, many of the seminaries now have waiting lists.
Another study showed that the instance of alcoholism among wives of Protestant clergy is higher than average.
Are you a Catholic? Have you asked your own pastor?Where's your Diocese? My pastor, Fr. Akata, would go in a heartbeat; he's gone to our county juvenile detention center for just one kid.
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