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To: A.A. Cunningham; BenKenobi
the 1139 law did not enact celibacy but merely changed marriage into concubinage. Rice quotes from a document on celibacy prepared by church historian Hubert Jedin for the Second Vatican Council:

“It would be a mistake to imagine that these permanent concubines, especially in the countryside, would have aroused a lot of scandal,” said Jedin. “We know of many cases where these `keepers of concubines’ possessed the sympathies of their parishioners and were looked upon as good and virtuous pastors.” (ibid page 162)

No finer mind than Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologia II-IIa, 88, 11)had provided stubborn opposition to those who saw celibacy rulings as part of divine law. Thomas contended that the celibacy requirement for Catholic priests was merely Church law that could be reversed by any time by papal or conciliar authority. (MacGregor pages 108-109)

When the Reformation indirectly brought forth the Council of Trent in the mid 1500’s, the Roman Catholic Church reformed itself and remodeled the priesthood to its present form. Not only did the Council reiterate the Church's prohibition of a married clergy but also instituted reforms to try to insure the implementation of the decrees of the Church on this subject.

Since the Council of Trent, celibacy has remained Church law, specifically upheld by Pope Paul VI in his 1967 encyclical Sacerdotalis Caelibatus. Despite opposition from half of the bishops attending the Synod of 1971, requests from bishops in the United States, France, and Latin America in 1988, Pope John Paul II has not budged from his opposition to a married priesthood.

9 posted on 01/28/2011 10:25:33 AM PST by Vaquero ("an armed society is a polite society" Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: Vaquero

That doesn’t address the argument of Paul, which is in scripture.

The ban on marriage for the priests goes back far further than 1139. You might want to check out the council of Elvira which was in the 4th Century.


10 posted on 01/28/2011 10:41:02 AM PST by BenKenobi (one of the worst mistakes anybody can make is to bet against Americans.")
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