"celibate men tend to devote more time to the Lord than married men.
That's very debatable! :^)"
Do you think that its only when you get on the other side of the fence, that you find out how very little most of them actually do?!!!
The priests I work with are good men, but they take very few evening appointments, insisting that they need that time to "read, meditate, and prepare homilies."
We have laymen prepping people for baptism, prepping people for marriage, working marriage cases, and even have a counselor on staff four nights a week. Some days, the priests barely work bankers' hours.
Hi Tantumergo,
How are you my brother. LOL! I've been very close to the ordained life for many many years. And fortunately saw so many things before I was ordained. So I was very familiar with the everyday affairs and duties of deacons, priests and bishops. Casual demeanor often plagues one who has a lot of time on his hands, and even the most dedicated and orthodox are affected by it. I know both part and full time clergy, celibate and married. Orthodox and dedicated one and all. And as far as devotedness and dedication to the vocation and duties, I see so little difference that it makes no difference, IMHO. The celibate person, whether a deacon, priest, bishop, brother, sister, friar, or lay person has one advantage that I can see. They can live in community! But that is a rare case these days! Almost unheard of in the diocesan priesthood. Outside of that, I know way too many married clergy who work as hard, in many instances harder, for the sake of the name, than their celibate counterparts. I support celibacy for those who are called to it. It is a gift. But it is a discipline as well. There will be much resistance to changing this disipline in the Latin Rite from being mandatory back to being optional.