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To: NYer
I have been Catholic my entire life and I for one am all for letting Catholic Priests marry. Personally I think it's a concept that is long overdue.

It is a double standard to permit married Lutheran and Episcopal priests to convert to Catholicism but not permit our priests to marry.
6 posted on 11/12/2005 10:18:19 AM PST by stm
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To: stm
It is a double standard to permit married Lutheran and Episcopal priests to convert to Catholicism but not permit our priests to marry.

It is not quite as simple as you seem to think. I am a Roman Catholic practicing my faith in an Eastern Catholic Church. Our pastor is bi-ritual (Maronite and Latin) and celibate. Following the election of Benedict XVI, someone asked if he thought this pope might open the Latin Church to a married priesthood. His response was quite illuminating.

In a nutshell, he described the process in the Maronite Church for those married men who seek to become priests. It is quite lengthy and entails great scrutiny of the man, his wife, children and their marriage. There can be no room for scandal resulting from divorce. He went on to describe the challenges faced by the married priests, once assigned to parishes. Their wives and children are scrutinized by parishioners. Then there are the costs associated with supporting the priest and his family. Our pastor pointed to the number of parishes closing in this country from lack of funds. If the Church can't financially support a celibate priest, how could afford all the expenses needed for the wife and kids.

Recently, I posted a thread written by a Lutheran pastor who converted to the Catholic faith. He essentially supported the celibate priesthood, describing the times he couldn't attend the kids' concerts, sports games, etc. His family meant a lot to him and it was a tremendous challenge to divide his time between the needs of his parishioners and those of his family.

There's an old expression: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

9 posted on 11/12/2005 10:30:47 AM PST by NYer (“Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion")
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