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To: NYer
With all due respect to the Pope, people really need to consider what the Holy Bible says about this issue. And Apostle Paul had been inspired to write 1 Timothy 3:1-5 (I'm looking at KJV).

3:1 This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.

2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife (emphasis added), vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

3 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;

4 One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;

5 (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) (emphasis added)

And unless God "repealed" that passage, I don't know why the Roman Catholic Church prohibits priests from marrying.

Insights, corrections welcome.

14 posted on 09/18/2013 4:22:37 PM PDT by Amendment10
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To: Amendment10; NYer
The Catholic Church in the West (Latin Rite) has a celibate priesthood. In the 21 Churches of the East (Melkite, Maronite, Chaldean, Byzantine, etc.) married men are often ordained priests.

Roman Catholicism has married deacons. In fact, we have more married deacons in the US (14,000) than we have priests in religious orders like the Jesuits and the Franciscans (13,000).

If a man wanted to have the vows of Holy Orders AND the vows of matrimony, after he was married he could become an Eastern Rite priest or he could be an ordained deacon.

Or, o the other hand, he might have a vocation as a celibate Latin priest. Whatever his calling is (married or celibate, laity or clergy), it is a special gift from God.

It's all a matter of what his calling is from the Lord. St. Paul, who wrote that excellent description of what the qualifications of a bishop should be (in the Letter to Timothy) is also the one who also recommended celibacy:

"It is well for a man not to touch a woman.... I wish that all were [unmarried] as I myself am. But each has his own special gift from God, one of one kind and one of another (1 Cor. 7:1,7).

That's good Scriptural advice, isn't it?

28 posted on 09/18/2013 5:55:06 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("The problem ain't what folks don't know. It's what they DO know, that ain't so!" - Will Rogers)
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To: Amendment10

Afraid to look up filthy lucre.


43 posted on 09/18/2013 7:00:21 PM PDT by fatima (Free Hugs Today :))
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