Posted on 03/08/2017 12:27:14 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Crux has the scoop:
https://cruxnow.com/global-church/2017/03/08/pope-francis-signals-openness-ordaining-married-men/
Pope Francis has expressed openness to a renewed consideration of married priests in the Catholic Church, especially the possibility of ordaining the so-called viri probati, meaning tested married men, who could be called into clerical service.
“Then we have to consider what tasks they could perform, for instance in isolated communities,” the pontiff said.
While the question put to Francis specifically referred to ordaining viri probati as deacons, many theologians and some bishops have also suggested they could be considered for priestly service.
The pope’s comments came in a new interview with the German newspaperDie Zeit, excerpts from which were published on Wednesday, with the full version set to appear on Thursday.
At the same time, Francis appeared to rule out simply making priestly celibacy optional, saying that approach “is not a solution.”
Calling diminishing vocations to the priesthood an “enormous problem,” Francis said the first response must be prayer, coupled with a more intense focus on “working with young people who are seeking orientation.”
A lack of priests, Francis said, weakens the Church “because a Church without the Eucharist doesn’t have strength – the Church makes the Eucharist, but the Eucharist also makes the Church.”
Francis called for the question to be faced in the Church “fearlessly.”
“Fears close doors, freedom opens them, and even when [the space for] liberty is small, it opens a window,” he said.
At present, most Catholic are expected to remain celibate, although Catholicism does include 23 Eastern churches in full communion with Rome whose clergy are allowed to marry. In the United States, there are also a few hundred former Protestant ministers who’ve entered the Catholic Church as married men and permitted to remain married after being ordained as Catholic priests.
In April 2014, a Brazilian bishop said he and Pope Francis had discussed the idea of ordaining the viri probati in a private conversation and the pontiff appeared open to the idea, suggesting it’s up to bishops’ conferences to make proposals along those lines.
Last November, Francis crossed Rome to meet with a community of seven families, all led by men who had left the priesthood to become married. There had been speculation that Francis might choose to devote the next Synod of Bishops in 2018 to the topic of married priests, but instead the focus of that gathering will be on youth, faith and vocational discernment. In another portion of the interview, Francis, as he has on other occasions, sounded an alarm about the rise of political populism in the West today. “Populism is evil and ends badly, as the past century has shown,” he said, arguing that it means “using the people” by offering them a messiah.
Francis also rejected the suggestion that he’s something special, saying, “I am a sinner and I am fallible.”
As he has many times in the past, he suggested that exaggerated celebration of a pope is actually dangerous.
“We must not forget that the idealization of a person is always a subliminal kind of aggression,” he said. “When I am idealized, I feel attacked.”
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice, part of the City University of New York system, studied the molestation cases, and found that over 85% of the molestations were done by homosexual priests. In Australia, they recently found that the percentage was over 90%. Just how would marriage help?
Does that mean psychologista and psychiatrists are unable to help people unless they themselves have experienced what their patient is going through?
I think based on necessity and the nature of the minsitry, those who were priests at that time were MOSTLY unmarried. However, to marry or not marry was NOT a rule that was established during the first 3 centuries after Christ. It came many centuries later.
For instance, St. Patrick himself ( Born 385 AD ) was the grandson of a priest and the son of a deacon. St. Hillary was elected bishop of Poitiers (Born 310 ) in what is now France by the laity and clergy. He was already married with one daughter named Apra. And we all know that St. Peter himself was a married man.
We can agree that the rule priestly celibacy came much later but it did not cause much resistance because most of those who took the vocation of priesthood were like St. Paul, unmarried.
Well, Peter himself was married.
And Paul laid out the requirements for elders and deacons to be married men.
Since married clergy never has been against any kind of law God instituted, there’s no real reason or rational justification for a celibate clergy.
It would solve the priest shortage.
And the choices he made for apostles?
Most of them single and celibate!!
Nobody knows that and Scripture is silent on whether *most* of them were single/celibate. You can't state that as fact as Scripture is silent on the issue.
Peter wasn't and he is the guy you guys claim is the first pope.
Jesus clearly didn't have a problem with Peter being married.
Don't know why Catholics think marriage is so unworthy of people.
That along with a lot of Roman Catholicism goes against the NT.
That would be easy...According to God's scripture a man must be married and have children before he is put in charge of a congregation...There would be no job openings for queers...
Well, that your opinion. Peter was married (Matt. 8:14). Philip the evangelist was married (Acts 21:8,9). Paul instructed Timothy that a bishop was to be the husband of one wife (1Tim. 3:2).
That was quite a while before 400 AD.
Now, up in my old neighborhood in IL, there was a priest that left the boys alone ( I hope), but borrowed more than one man’s wife during his assignment to the local RCC. He was moved elsewhere when it became too obvious.
Yah, pretty much...God didn't suggest you get a 4 year education to become a pastor...He wants you to live it...He said grow a family...And here's the principle involved...
2Co 1:4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
It's one thing to read about it...It's an entirely different thing to live it...
Oh, puhleeze. {{{rolling eyes}}}
You certainly read all sorts of things into scripture, don't you?
What is most interesting is that our relationship with Jesus is often portrayed as a wedding, a marriage.
But yet marriage is held in disdain by so many Roman Catholics.
One analogy that came up was: Say a Cabin Attendant always sat on the flight deck during flights, take offs, and landings. The CA learned everything about flying, knowing the instrument panel and what every instrument does. The CA also knew all the checklists forward and backward; knew all the protocols about contacting the various services inflight. The CA would go and give a class on what was learned, however, the CA never took the plane off the ground, flew it to a destination landed it and taxied it to a gate. The CA had no actual hands on experience in handling the aircraft.
Anyway, my question was not meant to be disparaging or to ridicule or anything like that. It was strictly a rhetorical one.
God Bless, Janey
1 Timothy 3:1-13 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?
It's pretty straightforward that the man is to be married and manage his own household well and Paul gives the reason.
Of course, anyone who can justify disobeying direct commands of Jesus by calling their religious leaders *Father* will have no problem weaseling out of obeying this command as well.
If they will disregard Jesus' own words they will disregard Paul for sure.
BBG: Oh, puhleeze. {{{rolling eyes}}}
Typical Catholic attitude towards the word of God. Pretty sad at that.
What a pompous thing to accuse a poster of, cleverly hidden behind a question mark.
Then you seem to go off on to another foolish question.
Born again non-Catholic Christians will never follow your legalistic tradition laden version of Christianity called Catholicism.
BTW using only the term (as you did) "Christ" could mean anything.
Christians follow and believe in the Christ with a first name; Jesus.
And the choices he made for apostles?
Most of them single and celibate!!
Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? 1 Corinthians 9:5 NASB
Guess roman catholics have a different version of history.
Kind of a flimsy foundation!
Never fear; if things get TOO out of hand; Mary will make yet another curtain call and toss out 15 MORE promises to get the CHURCH back in line.
(Given to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan de la Roche)
| 1 | Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive powerful graces. |
| 2. | I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. |
| 3. | The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies |
| 4. | It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means. |
| 5. | The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall not perish. |
| 6. | Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying Himself to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise Him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just, he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life. |
| 7. | Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church. |
| 8. | Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the Saints in Paradise. |
| 9. | I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. |
| 10. | The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven. |
| 11. | You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary. |
| 12. | All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities. |
| 13. | I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death |
| 14. | All who recite the Rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ. |
| 15. | Devotion of my Rosary is a great sign of predestination. |
"The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem,
no matter how difficult it is, wheter temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families...that cannot be solved by the Rosary.
There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary."
Sister Lucia dos Santos
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