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To: Salvation

You seem to have a lot of knowledge regarding the roman catholic church. Could you tell me why were priests allowed to marry for the first millenia and then they were no longer allowed to marry?


5 posted on 03/13/2010 3:18:17 AM PST by seawolf101
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To: seawolf101
This thread may answer your question. There are lots of links about the priesthood there plus a thorough discussion of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

Beginning Catholic: The Sacrament of Holy Orders: Priests of the New Sacrifice [Ecumenical]

6 posted on 03/13/2010 8:33:26 AM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: seawolf101

Then you have this:

Clerical Celibacy
The Roman Catholic Church demands celibacy—no voluntary sexual pleasure, hence, no marriage—as a prerequisite to the order of presbyter.

The primary basis for the requirement of celibacy is clearly the lifestyle example of Jesus himself.

The Church notes that the practice is sanctioned by the New Testament.

Mt 19:12
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.
1 Cor 7:6-7
This I say by way of concession, however, not as a command. Indeed, I wish everyone to be as I am (single? widowed?), but each has a particular gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.
1 Cor 7:25-26
Now in regard to virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. So this is what I think best because of the present distress: that it is a good thing for a person to remain as he is.
1 Cor 7:32-34
I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit. A married woman, on the other hand, is anxious about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
The law of celibacy has no doctrinal bearing in the Catholic Church—it is a mere disciplinary law. Even today, there are married Catholic priests in the United States. Each is a former Episcopalian priest who joined the Catholic Church. There are Uniate Churches, churches in union with Rome, e.g., the Greek Byzantine Church, who have a married clergy.

Priestly celibacy became law in the Roman Church in the 6th century.


7 posted on 03/13/2010 8:38:14 AM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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