Pope Francis Allows Married Man to Join Priesthood for First Time in Nearly 100 Years

Christian Post ^ | 03/03/2013 | Morgan Lee

[MDLION]

“Clearly a man-made tradition”

“Clearly”? I disagree.

“some choose not to marry for the Kingdom of Heaven.”
-Matthew 19:12

“And everyone who has given up ... wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” -Matthew 19:29

“that has long outlived any usefulness”

“any”? I’ve heard more than one married Christian minister with a family say they feel like they have two full time jobs and are frequently exhausted. They compare it to an 80-hour workweek for a person who is only getting older. More than one of them have said they think the Church’s celibacy discipline is wise and practical. Marriage and raising a family is a full time job. And so is attending to the sheep in a congregation or parish. Even Catholic priests have to have lay help because they can’t attend to all the needs of a parish if it is large enough.

“and in fact has produced many negatives and unhealthy lifestyles.”

I hope you’re not linking sexual abuse to celibacy. Most male abusers are married. I’m not denying that there is the cross of loneliness at times when one is single. But I’m a lifelong single male and it hasn’t driven me to any “negative and unhealthy lifestyles.”

The ingenius Tempter always points out the negative aspects of any vocation. To the single person, priest or religious he says: “If only you had someone to share your life with you wouldn’t be lonely.” To the married person he says: “If only you didn’t have a ball and chain wife/husband and bratty kids, like a single person or priest, you could be happy.”

“Now the snake was the most cunning of all the animals the Lord God made. He asked the woman, ‘Did God really tell you...’?” -Genesis 3:1

[tioga]

It has happened a lot less than 100 years ago. I have heard of other cases and I am not over 100.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I know one priest, Fr. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy of Boston, who has a wife and kids. The order in which he did this, was, IIRC, when a Latin-rite Catholic layman in Boston, he got married, had a couple of kids (he was a college instructor then), they all went over to England I think, transferred from the Latin rite to the Melkite rite, then he got ordained a Melkite priest, then went back to Boston and had more kids, now numbering 13 I think. His ordination was 30+ years ago.

Kinda complicated, but that made him at the time the only American-born married Melkite priest in the USA. The whole story can be pieced together here: Fr. Emmanuel McCarthy (LINK)

He's now the rector of the Melkite Catholic Seminary in MA. Does a lot of writing and speaking. His remarkable --- but rarely remarked upon --- PhD wife, Mary, presumably has had her hands full with the kids.

His other claim to fame is that his youngest daughter, Teresia Benedicta, swallowed most of a bottle of Tylenol at age 2 and suffered nearly 100% destruction of liver function. This is 100% fatal. She was healed, by the mercy of God, through the intercession of Edith Stein (Teresia Benedicta a Cruz, her namesake--- Latin spelling) and this healing led to St. Edith Stein's canonization...

Everybody's got a story.

[Tax-chick]

I remember the case of the child and the cause of St. Teresia Benedicta/Edith Stein.

Honestly, I don’t get this. Men don’t want to live marital chastity. Men don’t want a natural family. Married men do nothing but complain that they never have sex. So what’s this all about? What’s the “need” for priests to be married? They’re never going to have sex anyway.

Stipulating that you’re never going to have sex other than rape, fornication or adultery, just consider your options realistically. Do you want someone to cook and do your laundry? Consider getting married. Do you want to go through your life considering nobody but yourself, not even the laundress? Stay single, pay your service providers a legal minimum wage plus SSI.