Posted on 10/03/2019 2:00:03 PM PDT by ebb tide
October 2, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Pope Francis has begun to eliminate restrictions on the activities of men who have been removed from the priestly state and allowed to marry, according to Religion Digital, a Spanish-language leftist news portal sometimes used by members of the Francis regime to announce new initiatives and respond to critics.
Moreover, the Vatican appears to be hinting that such people may be allowed to continue to carry out priestly functions in the future, even if they marry.
A trusted source close to the information has told LifeSite that the Vatican has also facilitated the process of obtaining dispensations for leaving the priesthood, and no longer places waiting periods or minimum ages on priests before they may receive such dispensations.
The same source tells LifeSite that the new rescripts are connected with the Amazon Synod agenda, which includes permitting the ordination of married men as priests.
Religion Digital describes the new approach as an “absolute and radical change in the procedure that priests have to follow when they hang up their garb and ask for a dispensation.”
According to a recent decree or “rescript” issued in Spanish by the Vatican in response to a request by a priest to be returned to the lay state, which was published by Religion Digital and has been translated into English by LifeSite, such priests may now remain in the communities that they served, where they must be “accepted,” even after marrying, and may even marry publicly in that same community.
In previous rescripts, laicized priests were prohibited from distributing Holy Communion or directing pastoral activities. These restrictions are reversed in the current version of the rescript, which instead states that “the dispensed cleric will be able to exercise those ecclesiastical offices that do not require sacred Order, with the permission of the competent Bishop.”
Previous rescripts for laicizing priests stated that they must leave the communities they served and live in a place in which they were not known as having been ordained as a priest, and in addition, any marriage contracted by the laicized priest had to be “carried out with caution and without pomp and outward display.” Such rescripts also required laicized priests to carry out a penance through “some work of devotion or charity,” another requirement that has disappeared from the rescript.
However, the text of the new rescript hints that the prohibition on the priest continuing to function as a priest while married may be lifted in the future, stating that the dispensation “includes, inseparably, the dispensation from celibacy and, at the same time, the loss of the clerical state. These two elements can never be separated, because according to current practice they are part of a single procedure” (boldface added).
Religion Digital openly celebrates what it sees as a move towards a married priesthood, even including a drawing of a priest holding his child with the caption, “A priest with his little child in his arms would be a greater testimony of the love of God than all of the celibates in the world.”
Religion Digital openly celebrated what it sees as a move towards a married priesthood with this cartoon. The caption reads: 'A priest with his little child in his arms would be a greater testimony of the love of God than all of the celibates in the world.' religiondigital.org / screen grab
The new rescript also relaxes prohibitions on laicized priests taking teaching positions. Although it still prohibits them from being involved in the formation of priests, it now allows them to teach theology and even to exercise leadership positions in the teaching of theology at the high school level. They may even teach theology at a Catholic university if permission is given by the Congregation for the Clergy. All such activities were prohibited to laicized priests in the past, mostly without exception.
A translation made in 2006 of the earlier rescript on dispensing a priest can be found here on pages 45-46.
A source with immediate knowledge of the situation tells LifeSite that the restrictions on such dispensations, which placed delays on priests asking to be laicized, have been lifted in recent years. Previously, priests had to be over 40 and had to wait five years from their initial request to receive laicization. Now, it appears, priests can receive such dispensations virtually immediately, and with little to curtail their activities in the Church after they have left the priesthood.
“The prohibition of granting dispensation before the age of 40 or the need for the priest to abandon an irregular cohabitation before being eligible for the granting of a dispensation... all those rules are being turned into dust,” LifeSite’s source stated. Who added that now the priest is “viewed as a functionary,” with “a job one may peacefully abandon at any time.”
In leaving the priesthood, there is “an all around aura of normality,” the source added.
The Catholic Church teaches that priestly ordination places an “indelible mark” of the sacrament of Holy Orders on the recipient, which can never be nullified. When men are removed from the priestly state and allowed to marry, they technically remain priests, but may exercise their priestly faculties only under extraordinary circumstances, normally only to hear confessions of a person in danger of death.
The lifting of restrictions on laicized and married priests would seem to lend weight to concerns that the Amazon Synod, which begins on October 6, will begin to allow the ordination of married men, ostensibly to address the shortage of unmarried men willing to be ordained as priests.
The synod’s working document or “instrumentum laboris” states that “it is requested that, for the most remote areas of the region, the possibility of priestly ordination be studied for older people, preferably indigenous, respected and accepted by their community, even if they have an existing and stable family, in order to ensure availability of the Sacraments that accompany and sustain the Christian life.”
The Spanish original of the recent (July, 2019) rescript from Pope Francis can be found here.
LifeSite’s translation of the rescript can be found here.
Well, no Christian has a right to do since there aren't any priests in Christianity...They've been replaced by the one High Priest when the veil was ripped from top to bottom thus eliminating the function of the priesthood...
What does your Bible say?
Care to quote it? Chapter and verse?
Western Jerusalem???
Celibacy was not the practice for clergy...Paul layed out the rules for clergy and it included marriage and children...In fact, you couldn't qualify for the clergy til you were a proven family man/father...Kinda odd that the Catholic religion would ignore the scriptures and go for just the opposite of the marriage mandate, don't ya think???
Today's Catholic priests are the πρεσβύτεροι of the New Testament. The fact that the English word "priest" was latter coopted to translate ἱερεύς does not take away its original meaning, or the historical fact that today's Catholic priests are the continuation of the office of πρεσβύτερος in the New Testament.
[1] And when the days of the Pentecost were accomplished, they were all together in one place: [2] And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. [3] And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them: [4] And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak. Acts, Chapter 2.
[21] He said therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. [22] When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. [23] Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. John, Chapter 20.
So Paul was disqualifying himself? Is this the same Paul who urged others to follow his own example of celibacy? I am afraid that you are reading your own preferences into the text.
Guess it takes one to know one, eh???
Here's YOUR cherry picked verse:
Mat 19:29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
You obviously don't have a clue what this verse references so you pull it out of context to prove something that doesn't exist...Here's the rest of the scenario:
Mat 19:28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
2Th 1:7 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
2Th 1:8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
2Th 1:9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
2Th 1:10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
End of the Great Tribulation...In That Day...The 2nd coming of Jesus Christ to the earth...
Mat 25:31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
When Jesus shows up the 2nd time he's going to eliminate all of Israel's enemies and he will then sit on the throne of his glory, the throne of David, in Jerusalem...The twelve apostles will be sitting on their own thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel...
The scripture you posted has absolutely nothing to do with celibacy...It doesn't even have anything to do with the church or the church age...
I wish you guys would leave scripture alone...You torture it so...
The veil was ripped from top to bottom...We Christians can now walk right into the Holy of Holies...You can too...We won't get killed...We don't need priests for sacrifices because there are no more sacrifices, after the one time sacrifice of Jesus...The old priesthood no longer has a function...We do not need a priest as an intermediary to communicate with Jesus/God...
We confess our sins to God directly, we don't need a priest...
We ask God directly for forgiveness...No need for a priest...
We pray directly to God...No need for a priest...
And if you want to get fussy about it, Jesus did not require a priest to hand your Eucharist to his disciples...The apostles were not priests...Had to be a Levite to be a priest...
This goes with THIS:::
Mat 19:28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Mat 19:29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
It is all future...
Those apostles were expecting Jesus to return right away...They had no idea of the MYSTERY which was to be revealed to the apostle Paul of the Gentile church which would last for 2000 years...
It was you who said, “Sorry, I am not at all swayed by that verse.”.
Why not own up to it?
Wasn't me...
My apologies.
Mea culpa.
No problemo...
In truth we see what it is by another aspect of the Holy Orders, called permanent deacons, who are married.
Um....Revelation 21:2 begs to differ.
Our Lord DOES have a bride,the Church.
He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover [i.e. Passover sacrifice] with you before I suffer, for, I tell you, I shall not eat it [again] until there is fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” … Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you. (Luke 22:14, 17-19)Jesus established a new Passover sacrifice and commanded that his Apostles to continue this sacrifice.
We confess our sins to God directly, we don't need a priest...
We ask God directly for forgiveness...No need for a priest...
[Jesus] said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,m “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” (John 20:21-23)Had to be a Levite to be a priest...
A ἱερεύς had to be a Levite and descendent of Aaron, not a πρεσβύτερος (Christian priest). The office of πρεσβύτερος is attested in the New Testament and continues today in the Catholic priest (presbyter).
See Revelation 21:2.
Our Lord has a bride,the Church.
From a historic perspective,yes.
Complete nonsense and myth. Priestly celibacy/sexual continence was practice in the West since the earliest days.
And what does that have to do with being celibate?
St Joseph had a bride and she was the Virgin Mary.
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