Posted on 12/16/2006 1:07:45 PM PST by Zemo
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Should Catholic priests have the right to marry?
A Protestant friend who saw the video of Father Plushy giving his Barney blessing -- and truly, I don't know what is more irritating, the priest or the full house of ninnies who sat there singing and clapping -- writes this morning to say:
That video you just posted is the best single argument I have ever seen for ending the celibacy of the priesthood.
Well, maybe. One is entitled to wonder how seriously Father Plushy takes his vow of celibacy, or anything about the dignity and responsibilities of the priesthood. Still, even if priests were allowed to marry, why would that necessarily prevent future Father Plushies from entering the priesthood? On paper, it wouldn't, but if it made the priesthood open to men who would consider it if they could also fulfill vocations as husbands and fathers, it seems to me that you'd stand a greater chance of creating a more healthy manly culture within the ranks of clergy.
Priestly celibacy is not a dogmatic teaching, but rather a discipline of the Catholic Church. The Pope could not overturn the Church's teaching on (say) abortion, but he could theoretically change the celibacy discipline with a stroke of his pen. But should he?
Mandatory clerical celibacy is a discipline that was imposed on Catholic clergy in the Middle Ages. In the Orthodox churches, priests are still permitted to marry, as was the ancient practice. There are limitations on this -- you have to marry before your ordination, and the bishops are drawn from the monastic ranks, which means they must be celibates. But parish priests can and do have families. I've been going to an Orthodox church for a year or so now, though only in full communion for a few months, and I see that the two priests at my parish -- both of whom are married, and have children -- are really wonderful. I find it hard to understand why the Catholic Church insists on clerical celibacy.
Well, let me take that back: for many conservative Catholics, the celibacy requirement is seen as a valuable sign of contradiction to our oversexed age. That resonates with me. I think, though, that it's also the case that many orthodox Catholics resist thinking about ending the celibacy discipline because it's something that progressive Catholics have been pushing for, and to do so would appear to be a major concession to their agenda. But I tell you, after the Scandal revealed how the Catholic priesthood has become heavily gay, and at least some of the gays in the priesthood in positions of power were shown to be systematically using their power to discourage straight men considered a threat to them from continuing in the priesthood -- the "Goodbye, Good Men" thesis, and believe me, I have heard directly from seminarians and priests in the trenches how this works -- more than a few orthodox Catholics (including at least one deeply conservative priest) have said to me that it's time to consider ending mandatory celibacy. Before I even considered becoming Orthodox, I had spoken to Catholic friends about my own doubts on the wisdom of maintaining an exclusively celibate clergy (the distinction being that there will always be men and women called formally to the celibate state, and they must be honored and provided for, as they always have been in the Christian church.)
I think they're right. I mean, look, by year's end we will have seen ordained to the Catholic priesthood of two former Episcopal priests, Al Kimel and Dwight Longenecker, who converted to Catholicism. I have every expectation that they'll be wonderful, faithful, orthodox Catholic priests. And they are also married men. If they are to be welcomed and affirmed as Catholic priests, why not others? To be sure, these men are not campaigning for the end of the celibacy discipline, and as the Longenecker article I linked to in this sentence brings out, a married clergy poses special problems of its own.
Still, I think it's worth talking about, especially because to open up the Catholic priesthood to married men requires no change in the Church's doctrinal teaching. Would bringing married men into the priesthood cause a culture change within the priesthood that would discourage the Father Plushies from celebrating their diversity? I don't know. But I'd sure like to hear what orthodox Catholics and others have to say about it.
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.