NYer seems to be talking about globally; I was referring to nationally, and I was unsure of the number, so I rounded upward.
>> 1. Protestants don’t play the propaganda war as much. <<
That’s ridiculous. 90% of what I’ve ever heard on Christian Radio is the propaganda war. Rarely explicitly, but when they rail on and on endlessly against praying to idols in Virginia, for instance, I safely assume they’re trying to make people afraid of Catholics praying in front of statues. I mean, is praying to idols really the single, biggest threat to Christianity in Virginia?
>> 3.) We can assume, based on the tradition during Jesus’ time, that his disciples were mostly married men. <<
What tradition? Certainly, the bible makes no mention of any disciple having a wife. Since tradition records most of them (except John) dying violently, it’d be almost kinds cruel to never read about their kids and widows being taken care of. The closest reference to a wife is Peter’s mother-in-law, but even this passage, there’s no reference to his wife or kids. Was he a widower?
>> For further historical facts and reflections as well as insights from married priests, I highly recommend spending some time at www.rentapriest.com. <<
Seriously, what on Earth would you be doing browsing around rentapriest? The entire existence of that group is based on deceiving people that they’ve received valid sacraments. (”Receive Christ’s sacraments from a married Catholic priest.”)
Incidentally, the Catholic Church has never doctrinally forbidden a married priesthood, so trying to divert the conversation to a debate about whether the bible forbids a married priesthood is pointless. There are, in fact, thousands of valid, married Catholic priests, none of whom would have anything to do with rent-a-priest.
1. Protestants don’t play the numbers propaganda war as much.
>> For further historical facts and reflections as well as insights from married priests, I highly recommend spending some time at www.rentapriest.com. <<
Seriously, what on Earth would you be doing browsing around rentapriest? The entire existence of that group is based on deceiving people that they’ve received valid sacraments. (”Receive Christ’s sacraments from a married Catholic priest.”)
Who said I ever went to Rentapriest? I didn't say so nor did I go there.
We seem to have trouble in our communications.
You grab a site which says the loss is 10,000 priests. I grab a site which shows a loss of 20,000 priests.
Neither of us can back up those numbers so they are useless as "factual" material.
My whole point was it is foolish to grab a site which tickles your fancy and post it as the facts and nothing but the facts.
I made no comment whatsoever concerning the content or the reliability of the site. I merely pointed out "he said 10,000" and "he said 20,000" while I believed neither of them really knew the true number. You chose to attack everything but the point I was making.