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To: RobbyS

I’m sorry, I didn’t quite follow that. Can you rephrase?


116 posted on 12/14/2009 3:19:06 PM PST by the_conscience (I'm a bigot: Against Jihadists and those who support despotism of any kind.)
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To: the_conscience

Information found elsewhere


Scripture:

1 Cor. 7:27-34: “Are you free from a wife? Do not seek marriage. . . . Those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. . . . 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”

Matthew 19:11-12: “Not all can accept this word, but only those to whom it is granted. 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 God. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.”


3rd Century Church Evidence:

Most people assume that the celibate priesthood is a convention introduced by the Church fairly late in history. On the contrary, there is evidence that even the earliest Church fathers, such as St. Augustine, St. Cyril, and St. Jerome, fully supported the celibate priesthood. The Spanish Council of Elvira (between 295 and 302) and the First Council of Aries (314), a kind of general council of the West, both enacted legislation forbidding all bishops, priests, and deacons to have conjugal relations with their wives on penalty of exclusion from the clergy. Even the wording of these documents suggests that the councils were not introducing a new rule but rather maintaining a previously established tradition. In 385, Pope Siricius issued the first papal decree on the subject, saying that “clerical continence” was a tradition reaching as far back as apostolic times. While later councils and popes would pass similar edicts, the definitive promulgation of the celibate, unmarried priesthood came at the Second Lateran Council in 1139 under Pope Gregory VII. Far from being a law forced upon the medieval priesthood, it was the acceptance of celibacy by priests centuries earlier that eventually led to its universal promulgation in the twelfth century.


119 posted on 12/14/2009 3:29:47 PM PST by Notwithstanding (Wer glaubt ist nie allein. Who believes is never alone.)
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To: the_conscience

It can’t be arbitrary—or artificial, as you say—and be changeable. The rule can be changed but only in accord with Church tradition. The pope can allow married men to be priests in the Latin rite, but that is the tradition in the Eastern rites. But he cannot allow a priest to marry, nor a woman, because these things is contrary to tradition. That is, because these things are not in accord with THE Tradition, he has no authority.


130 posted on 12/14/2009 5:17:10 PM PST by RobbyS (Pray with the suffering souls.)
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