Posted on 05/18/2009 11:15:06 AM PDT by NYer
.- The president of the Latin American Bishops’ Council (CELAM), Archbishop Raymundo Damasceno, said during a press conference last week that celibacy “is not up for debate” at CELAM’s 32nd assembly nor “in the Church in general.”
The archbishop made his comments in the wake of the questions raised about celibacy by Father Alberto Cutie of Miami, who has been romantically involved with a woman.
He told reporters that celibacy “is not up for debate at this assembly nor in the Church in general, and so the priest who is ordained also must be prepared to exercise his ministry within the requirements the Church lays out for candidates to the priesthood.”
After noting that celibacy “is a gift from God and a charism proper to the ordained,” the archbishop explained that a man who is ordained “learns the demands of living the ministerial priesthood during the time of his formation.”
Archbishop Damasceno stressed that every priest freely chooses celibacy, “but one needs supernatural and spiritual resources in order to live the total commitment of service to the Church and the people of God.”
Biblical evidence for the discipline of celibacy can be found in both the Old and the New Testaments. In the Old, Jeremiah was forbidden by God to take a wife in order to enable him to fulfill his ministry better. "The word of the Lord came to me: 'You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place'" (Jer. 16:1-2).
Also in the Old Testament, God asked even married couples to practice celibacy on certain occasions. For example, Moses asked the Israelites to abstain from marital intimacy while he ascended Mount Sinai (Ex. 20:15), and Jewish tradition attests that he remained celibate for life following the command of Exodus 9:15 and Deuteronomy 5:28. The Lord also asked that the priests refrain from sexual relations with their wives during their time of service in the temple. In yet another example, the priests ordered King David and his people to abstain from marital relations on the occasion of eating the holy bread (1 Sam. 21:4).
In all these instances, there is a theme of abstaining from marital relations due to the presence of something very holy. It is not that the marital act is sinful, but that when one is in such proximity to God, it is right to offer him an undivided mind, heart, and body. If it was fitting under the Old Covenant to serve the temple, to approach God, and receive the holy bread with a consecrated body, it is no surprise that permanent celibacy is fitting for a Roman Catholic priest, since his priestly service is continual.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus states, "Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it" (19:12 NAB). This is an invitation from Christ to live as he did, and there can be nothing unacceptable in that.
Paul recognized the wisdom in this, and encouraged celibacy in order to free a man to be anxious about the things of the Lord and to serve him undividedly (1 Cor 7:8,32-35). In his words, "To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I do. . . . I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman or girl is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord. . . . he who marries his betrothed does well; and he who refrains from marriage will do better" (1 Cor. 7:8, 32-35, 38).
The Vatican released a statement that said that the vocations crisis is ending. In a statement released on March 30, 2000, Catholic World News service reported from the Vatican: "The worldwide crisis of clerical vocations has ended, according to the prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy." Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos reported that there are now 109,828 seminarians preparing for the priesthood around the world, which is an enormous increase from the 60,142 in 1975. The news release continued, "There were 404,626 priests serving the Catholic Church in 1999. Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos noted that some priests have returned to their ministry after having abandoned the priesthood. And the number of defections from priestly life is falling; the cardinal pointed out that in 1975 there were 3,314 men who left the priesthood; in 1997 there were 1,006."
The celibacy of the priesthood should not be seen as a burden that impedes vocations, but as a living witness to the world that serving Christ is worth sacrificing even the greatest joys of human life-a wife and family. "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).
While this appears to be a simple question, there are a few misconceptions that need to be addressed. Many Protestants-and even Catholics for that matter-do not know that there are many rites within the Catholic Church that allow married men to become priests. Though the Latin (Western) Rite practices the discipline of priestly celibacy, most of the Eastern Rites allow married men to be ordained.
Even within the Latin Rite, the Church has made exceptions for a number of converted married ministers to become ordained. This is known as the "pastoral provision," and it demonstrates that clerical celibacy is a discipline, not a doctrine. The doctrines of the Church are teachings that can never be reversed. On the other hand, disciplines refer to those practices (such as eating meat on Fridays) that may change over time as the Church sees fit.
Jer 16:1-5 gives some enlightening to the situation
The word of the LORD came to me: 2"You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. 3For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: 4(A) They shall die of deadly diseases.(B) They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried.(C) They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground.(D) They shall perish by the sword and by famine,(E) and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.
The emphasis in this passage is that this 'place' or the 'land' was not condusive to the will of the lord; not that marriage was a bad thing.
Further, the Early Church consisted mostly of adult converts, and, of course, St. Peter was a convert. Naturally, the majority of the hierarchs of the Early Church were married men. The advice to Titus to ordain priests who are “husbands of one wife” reflects that.
It is noteworthy that while we have examples of married men becoming priests and bishops, and even popes, we have no examples of ordained clergy marrying and remaining clergy. We cannot even be sure if the marriages that we know about were not so-called josephine marriages, when the household was shared but not the marital bed.
In the case of Peter, we actually don’t even know if his wife was alive at the time of his ministry. All we know is that he had a mother-in-law, hence was once married.
St. Paul was celibate and praised celibacy in his letters, as a vocation especially well suited to ministry.
The Church does not teach that marriage is a bad thing; quite the opposite.
Where in the Bible does it say that clerical celibacy must be demonstrated by the Bible?
Where in the Bible does the Bible provide the canon of the Bible?
These kinds of questions beg much larger questions that are rarely if ever asked by "Bible alone" Christians.
No one is suggesting that marriage is a bad thing. The passage was cited as an example of celibacy within scripture - nothing more.
It was a pro-active attempt to ward off the usual questions.
Peter’s wife was a babe. When he proposed to her he gave her the ring, a huge diamond, and said “Upon this rock. . .”
While I do not agree with the simplistic nature of the above statement, there would be a big advantage to the Church. For one thing it would reduce the influence and activities of the gay bishops and clergy, add more priests that speak the English language, offset the young control-freaks who want to go back, back, back and encourage American heterosexual men to enter seminaries.
But there is a cost, which is not worth the advantage.
Priestly celibacy in the Western Church stands in stark opposition to the cult of sexuality in the West. A celibate priest proves that chaste life in complete dedication to God is fulfilling and possible and that control of our passions is possible. In the culture saturated with self-indulgence, priestly celibacy is of tremendous value to the laity today, more than ever before.
I guess you blindly accept bible verses without bothering to look them up. I suggest you look them up, you will find that all but one of these verses have NOTHING to do with the topic at hand. Take a good look, before you bother to flame someone who HAS LOOKED THEM UP - you won't look so foolish this way.
What integrity? A priest is supposed to be married to the Church.
Indeed; and married priesthood is possible. Celibate priesthood though is a purer form.
Especially if it leads to a homosexual dominance, secret relationships and dishonesty?
Are Eastern rite married priests less "pure" ? Did the Apostles and many in the early Church have a less pure priesthood? Please help me understand?
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