Posted on 07/16/2002 3:23:55 PM PDT by Salvation
Evangelizer? With whom did Jesus speak? Certainly not the saved folk so much as with the unsaved.
This is true.
Oops, anyway should be anyone.
"Do unto others as would have them do unto you."
100% right.
sitetest
...Being a Catholic of the Byzantine Rite I can surprise you and mention that there are married priests in the Catholic Church. Even in the Latin Rite there are some priest converts, e.g. Anglican, Lutheran, who are ordained in the Catholic Church while married. While celibacy, understood as "forsaking marriage for the Kingdom of heaven", has always been held in high esteem throughout the history of the Catholic Church, it is not "ontologically" necessary for a priest. This differs significantly with the question of women priests. Women can't become priestess' in the Church because it is ,simple to say, impossible (See my Post #17 with link). Is celibacy a Tradition then, or a custom? I answer thusly!
The evangelical vows of chastity (and therefore, celibacy), poverty, and obedience, are indeed part of Sacred Tradition coming directly from the Apostles, particularly the witness of St. John, the "beloved disciple", who remained celibate (and of course Christ's Bride is the Church!). However, they are not essential for the priesthood and extend to other members of the Church. In fact, many lay people in the history of the Church e.g. nuns, sisters, brothers, and others, through discernment of the Holy Spirit freely vow themselves to God under the evangelical counsels. It was only natural (or supernatural!) that from the beginning of the Church that men discerning the priesthood would be at the forefront in making these vows upon ordination. From the earliest times, bishops, who were always celibate, chose men who were celibate for the priesthood with it being the local law for many "dioceses". This discipline has developed into canon law for the Latin Church for some time now, with the laws of the Eastern Churches a little more 'lax'. For example, a man not married upon ordination in the Eastern Rites takes this vow, or if becoming a widower remains unmarried.
Don't misunderstand, priestly celibacy is practiced very much so in the Eastern Rites - just not by all priests. All monks and Religious priests are vowed to celibacy, and many, if not most, secular priests freely choose to vow themselves to it as well. A corollary for Latin Rite priests would be that secular priests do not vow poverty, whereas all Religious priests do. Also, please understand that adult men freely discern and choose to be ordained in the Church if the Church, through discernment, find them to be suitable candidates. NO ONE IS HOLDING A GUN TO THEIR HEAD!!!...
...The Catholic Church forbids no one from getting married. Well, on second thought, maybe there are special cases such as an 8 year old boy marrying a 9 year old girl. The two, having not reached puberty, would be incapable of contracting a valid marriage. Impotent people, not to be confused with sterile people, cannot marry. People who have already vowed themselves to another in marriage cannot walk away from that vow to legitimately marry another. Likewise, people who validly and freely vow themselves to God. In what way is this, any of this, "CONTRARY" to His will?
Closing on the topic of celibacy. Should the Latin Rite of the Church change Her discipline? It is for Her only to be led by the Holy Spirit, and at present, the eschatological dimension of "celibate for the Kingdom of God" witness of Her priests seems to be sorely needed in a world which knows not God. Following is from Pope John Paul's Letter to Priests for Holy Thursday 1995:
"When Christ stated - as the Evangelist Matthew writes - that man can remain celibate for the Kingdom of God, the Apostles were disturbed (cf. 19:10-12). A little earlier Jesus had declared that marriage is indissoluble, and this truth had caused in them a significant reaction: "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry" (Mt 19:10). As is evident, their reaction went contrary to the notion of fidelity which Jesus had in mind. But the Master makes use even of this lack of understanding, in order to introduce into their narrow and limited way of thinking the perspective of celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven. He thereby wishes to affirm that marriage has a specific dignity and sacramental holiness, and that nevertheless there exists another path for the Christian: a path which is not a flight from marriage but rather a conscious choice of celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven."
Posted on 08/16/2002 5:53 AM Pacific by WriteOn
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
For: Friday, August 16, 2002
19th Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorial: St. Stephen of Hungary
From: Matthew 19:3-12
Marriage and Virginity ---------------------- [3] And Pharisees came up to Him (Jesus) and tested Him by asking, "Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?" [4] He answered, "Have you not read that He who made them from the beginning made them male and female, [5] and said, `For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one'? [6] So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder." [7] They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?" [8] He said to them, "For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. [9] And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery."
[10] The disciples said to Him, "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry." [11] But He said to them, "Not all men can receive this precept, but only those to whom it is given. [12] For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it."
***********************************************************************
Commentary:
4-5. "Marriage and married love are by nature ordered to the procreation and education of children. Indeed children are the supreme gift of marriage and greatly contribute to the good of the parents themselves. God Himself said: `It is not good that man should be alone' (Genesis 2:18), and `from the beginning (He) made them male and female' (Matthew 19:4); wishing to associate them in a special way with his own creative work, God blessed man and woman with the words: `Be fruitful and multiply' (Genesis 1:28). Without intending to underestimate the other ends of marriage, it must be said that true married life and the whole structure of family life which results from it is directed to disposing the spouses to cooperate valiantly with the love of the Creator and Savior, who through them will increase and enrich His family from day to day" (Vatican II, "Gaudium Et Spes", 50).
9. Our Lord's teaching on the unity and indissolubility of marriage is the main theme of this passage, apropos of which St. John Chrysostom comments that marriage is a lifelong union of man and woman (cf. "Hom. on St. Matthew", 62). On the meaning of "except for unchastity", see the note on Matthew 5:31-32).
11. "Not all men can receive this precept": our Lord is fully aware that the demands involved in His teaching on marriage and His recommendation of celibacy practised out of love of God run counter to human selfishness. That is why He says that acceptance of this teaching is a gift from God.
12. Our Lord speaks figuratively here, referring to those who, out of love for Him, renounce marriage and offer their lives completely to Him. Virginity embraced for the love of God is one of the Church's most precious charisms (cf. 1 Corinthians 7); the lives of those who practise virginity evoke the state of the blessed in Heaven, who are like the angels (cf. Matthew 22:30). This is why the Church's Magisterium teaches that the state of virginity for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven is higher than the married state (cf. Council of Trent, "De Sacram. Matr.", can. 10; cf. also Pius XII, "Sacra Virginitas"). On virginity and celibacy the Second Vatican Council teaches: "The Church's holiness is also fostered in a special way by the manifold counsels which the Lord proposes to His disciples in the Gospel for them to observe. Towering among these counsels is that precious gift of divine grace given to some by the Father (cf. Matthew 19:11; 1 Corinthians 7:7) to devote themselves to God alone more easily in virginity or celibacy [...]. This perfect continence for love of the Kingdom of Heaven has always been held in high esteem by the Church as a sign and stimulus of love, and as a singular source of spiritual fertility in the world" ("Lumen Gentium", 42; cf. "Perfectae Caritatis", 12). And, on celibacy specifically, see Vatican II's "Presbyterorum Ordinis", 16 and "Optatam Totius", 10.
However, both virginity and marriage are necessary for the growth of the Church, and both imply a specific calling from God: "Celibacy is precisely a gift of the Spirit. A similar though different gift is contained in the vocation to true and faithful married love, directed towards procreation according to the flesh, in the very lofty context of the sacrament of Matrimony. It is obvious that this gift is fundamental for the building up of the great community of the Church, the people of God. But if this community wishes to respond fully to its vocation in Jesus Christ, there will also have to be realized in it, in the correct proportion, that other gift, the gift of celibacy `for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven'" (John Paul II, "Letter To All Priests", 1979).
*********************************************************************** Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.
Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher (see below).
"The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries" are currently limited to the New Testament and Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Old Testament) books only.
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