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To: Trapped Behind Enemy Lines
Compulsory clerical celibacy was implemented during the Middle Ages and was introduced in the Church canon at the First Lateran Council in 1123.

Try about 800 years older than that, Synod of Elvira in Spain around AD 306. The "clerical celibacy was invented in the Middle Ages" stuff is bogus.

14 posted on 06/11/2015 12:37:57 PM PDT by Campion
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To: Campion

There were individuals pushing for compulsory clerical celibacy from the beginning. But it was not institutionalized until the Middle Ages. I refer you to Canon 21 instituted at the First Lateran Council in 1123. “We absolutely forbid priests, deacons, subdeacons, and monks to have concubines or to contract marriage.” Of course this canon has since been changed so that deacons are now permitted to be married.

There have been many Church leaders throughout the ages who have clamored for compulsory clerical celibacy. Many of these individuals quite frankly had issues with intimacy-—even that between a husband and a wife-—and some had issues with women. The Orthodox Church in the East would have none of it, and you finally had the Great Schism between the Western (Latin Rite) Church and the Eastern (Orthodox) Church. To this day Orthodox priests are permitted to be married and they have always been permitted to be married. There are even Catholic Churches in Eastern Europe and the Middle East which permit married men to be ordained as priests.

Some early Church leaders had such issues with physical intimacy that they even developed the dogma that Mary herself was always a virgin, even though the Bible only states that Mary was a virgin at the time of her conception of Jesus and goes no further than that and there is the fact that Mary had a husband and Jesus had brothers and sisters specifically mentioned in the Bible. Some of these early Church leaders seemed to think that Mary would have somehow been defiled even by engaging in physical intimacy with her own beloved spouse. A silly idea when you think about it. The Lord commands us to be fruitful and multiply and Mary and Joseph did just that. Sex is not a dirty thing. Holy Matrimony and physical intimacy between husband and wife is God’s plan and is something that would not have been denied to Mary and Joseph and certainly not denied to our priests. There is no requirement for such a draconian policy in the Bible.


16 posted on 06/11/2015 12:58:56 PM PDT by Trapped Behind Enemy Lines
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To: Campion

The Synod of Elvira was held in Spain, and the canons it passed were limited to that country.

The Vatican did not add celibacy to its canon until the First Lateran Council in 1123. And it took the Church many centuries after that to gain strong enforcement. In some places compulsory clerical celibacy has never been imposed or enforced or practiced. This is especially true in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

It is worth mentioning that even though I am not a fan of the current Pope, Francis is on record stating the following with respects to celibacy:

1) Celibacy is viewed by the Church as a discipline, not a dogma or a doctrine.

2) Celibacy was institutionalized many centuries after the founding of the Church.

3) Celibacy is a policy always subject to change.

All true of course stated by His Holiness the Pope no less.


49 posted on 06/12/2015 12:55:54 PM PDT by Trapped Behind Enemy Lines
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