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To: Rockingham

As I said

“It never improves anything when we add to God’s word our own desires or intentions, no matter how noble we may think it is.”

You are basically trying to justify how “man” knows better than God as to what constitutes the requirements for God’s priesthood.

Do you honestly believed God overlooked the challenges of early evangelism and needed man to correct the requirements He Himself created?

Where does God say “require celibacy” to ensure willingness to serve? I would think the Creator of everything might have mentioned such an extreme requirement if it was actually so.


9 posted on 09/26/2023 6:14:36 AM PDT by Skwor
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To: Skwor; Rockingham

Matt 19:10-12 - Jesus lays the foundation for the Catholic Church call to priestly celibacy. Verse 10 ends with “... there are eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. He that can take, let him take it.”
The Catholic priest is acting as Jesus Christ (”Alter Christus” or “in Persona Christi”) in the administration of the sacraments; he is no longer merely a man. Jesus was not married, so the Church, by extension, recommends priests not be married.
Thousands of years of prayer and fasting have gone into the thinking and decisions of the Church. The path is not easy, though it is simple.
Peace.


10 posted on 09/26/2023 7:03:28 AM PDT by Montana_Sam (Truth lives.)
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To: Skwor
The Bible neither requires nor forbids priestly celibacy and it was not the rule in the early Church nor is it required for Eastern Rite Catholic priests. Celibacy was adopted later in the Church in the west for the sake of evangelizing and converting the Romans and other pagan peoples.

A few years ago, I read of a young priest in Marseilles whose parish church was in an area that had many Muslims. To the astonishment of local Muslims, unlike his predecessor, he went about in a full cassock and addressed Muslims in a friendly manner in perfect Arabic.

The priests got to know the local imams and became friendly with them, often being asked about Catholicism and its defining aspects like the Mass, the sacraments, and the reason for Roman Catholic practices like priests being celibate. Gradually, relations between the Muslims and local Catholics improved. Lapsed Catholics began to return to church.

Was Muslim interest in priestly celibacy part of what opened the door to conversation? So it seemed.

14 posted on 09/26/2023 7:53:16 AM PDT by Rockingham
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