You've been fed a line of bull and swallowed it if you think that's the truth.
A nutshell wouldn't suffice. If you're sincerely interested and not simply intent on being a bomb thrower, read the following, cover to cover.
Can someone, in a nutshell, explain why priests shouldn’t be allowed to marry if the principal reason they were barred from it so long ago had to do with the inheritance of property? Is it just because it’s become so entrenched in the Church? I mean, I can understand the theological arguments for it, but it really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me if it wasn’t originally barred for those reasons...
A married man, however, can become a priest in some of the above churches.
To clarify: a priest cannot marry. But a married man can (sometimes) become a priest.
And your assumption that it was all a matter of conserving ecclesiatical property will be properly contested.
“Can someone, in a nutshell, explain why priests shouldn’t be allowed to marry if the principal reason they were barred from it so long ago had to do with the inheritance of property?”
False premise. Celibacy wasn’t about inheritance of property.
Celibacy is a practice that goes back to apostolic times.
Celibacy also exists within the Orthodox Church as well as within the Eastern Catholic Churches, side-by-side with married priests. In fact, in the Orthodox Church, only celibate priests may become bishops.
The practice of the early Church was that married men who were priests would be continent (abstain from sexual relations) prior to the celebration of the Mass/Divine Liturgy. Often, married men who became priests voluntarily became permanently continent.
In the West, it became the norm for priests to celebrate Mass daily. This meant that these men had to embrace permanent continence. In part from that arose the discipline of mandatory celibacy for priests in the Latin Church.
I've pinged a few among many posters who can provide a more complete explanation.
sitetest
First off ... that is not the principle reason. The principle reason is Scriptural. Jesus was celibate and advocated celibacy for His followers Matthew 19:10-12
That is the nutshell version. For a more in-depth understanding, go here.
This is the 2nd Eastern Catholic Cardinal who has spoken out in support of a celibate priesthood.
You've been fed a line of bull and swallowed it if you think that's the truth.
A nutshell wouldn't suffice. If you're sincerely interested and not simply intent on being a bomb thrower, read the following, cover to cover.
I wonder where this strange canard started. (You are hardly the first person who has said it; it must be a fairly common misconception.) I'll bet it traces back to a book written by some sort of atheist at some point.
Secular priests (diocesan priests, responsible to the bishop of a diocese, not members of a religious order) are permitted to inherit (and bequest) property at present, and I'm pretty sure that it's always been that way.
They are of course not permitted to bequeath things that belong to the church, no more than you can will your employer's property to your children.
Perhaps someone at one time expressed concern that the children of married priests would try to inherit church property (in an age when deeds and titles were much more loosely understood than they are now), and that has morphed into the "inheritance" storyline.
There's plenty of evidence for a celibate priesthood going back to very early days, and even married priests were supposed to abstain from relations with their wives, if not permanently, then at least on the night before they offered the Eucharistic liturgy. It goes back, in fact, to the Jewish priesthood -- Levite priests were not permitted to cohabitate with their wives when they were actively serving in the Temple.