Posted on 12/16/2006 1:07:45 PM PST by Zemo
True. But the laymen do have a role in the church. Thus it is more accurate to say that the church is a republic.
It can be said that the Latins have turned their church into a Papal autocracy where the Pope becomes his own ecumenical authority when such authority only rests with the assembled councils of bishops.
Yep, some thousand years ago. And my faith prospered BY THE GRACE OF GOD..... Okay, I'm a bit of a pagan-Catholic... but I still think we are the second chosen after the Jewish folk.
And I don't see a whole lot of Mexican Greek Orthodox, or Coptic Brazillians. So, it has worked out pretty well.
Church bishops meet, hold a discussion then approve via a vote in the affirmative or negative a matter of church policy. That is very much like a republican system.
To be correct, in 21 of the 22 Churches sui juris which comprise the Catholic Church, married men can be ordained, as a norm, to the Priesthood. Once ordained, in any of the 22 Churches, a single Priest may not then get married and retain his faculties.
Our Lord gave the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to the Apostle Peter, NOT a "republic" or whatever else you fancy His Church to be.
If you don't like it, then you can either commune with the Orthodox or you can join some post-fifteenth century group that believes whatever makes you most comfortable.
Dear Zemo,
"That is very much like a republican system."
Similar, but not the same.
And the Catholic view of things isn't the same as the Orthodox view.
sitetest
Drehers' comments regarding the Catholic Church can and should be aired out and placed on the lawn.
I don't see a problem with it. There are advantages and disadvantages.
From a church dogma standpoint, it's the pope's call. And we won't go to hell or heaven one way or the other.
The church is like a giant ship. It takes forever to turn (change some policies). They may or may not change it, but if they do, thousands will rent their clothing and pull their hair out. The rest of us, will go to mass and meet the Mrs.
Then why was he not the leader of the early church in Jerusalem?
The turn would be to return to the original Latin practice which once had married clergy and this was approved via ecumenical council ruling - i.e. returning to Latin married clergy would be a course correction back to its original sailing plan.
I agree. That's why the religious conservative who want to maintain tradtion have a real problem. If you don't like a church practice, wait 3 or 400 years and it may go your way.
He was, then he went to Rome.
As for married clergy - if the Pope allowed this practice once again it would not be a violation of any ecumenical council - in other words it would not be an innovation and it would still be part of historic/traditional Catholicism.
People do switch rites for that reason. One example I know of is Fr. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, of Boston. He and his wife, Mary, who holds a Ph.D. from Boston College, are the parents of 13(!) children. He was previously a lawyer, a college professor, and a Catholic of the Western rite. Somewhere in the midst of all that career and all that fatherhood, he went seminary overseas and was ordained a Melkite (Eastern Catholic) priest.
Interesting family. When his daughter Benedicta was a toddler, she was miraculously healed through the intercession of St. Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), a miracle which was instrumental in her (Edith Stein's) canonization.
Pope St. Silverius (Reigned 536-37). Dates of birth and death unknown. He was the son of Pope Hormisdas who had been married before becoming one of the higher clergy. Silverius entered the service of the Church and was subdeacon at Rome when Pope Agapetus died at Constantinople, 22 April, 536.
Should not a universal church have universal rules?
Celibacy causes homosexuality? Is that in the Bible?
Pope Agapetus I (died 22 April 536) reigned as pope from 535 to 536. Date of birth uncertain; he was the son of Gordianus, a Roman priest who had been slain during the riots in the days of Pope Symmachus.
Pope St. Silverius (Reigned 536-37). Dates of birth and death unknown. He was the son of Pope Hormisdas who had been married before becoming one of the higher clergy. Silverius entered the service of the Church and was subdeacon at Rome when Pope Agapetus died at Constantinople, 22 April, 536.
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His Grace, Bishop Alejo of Mexico City [far right] celebrated the Divine Liturgy with His All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Wisdom in Mexico City.