They seem to be of little help in understanding (and OBEYING) Matthew 23:9. And Peter was married.
Matthew 8:14-15 New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995)
14 When Jesus came into Peter’s home, He saw his mother-in-law lying sick in bed with a fever. 15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she got up and waited on Him.
CATHOLIC TRADITION - Forbidding the priesthood to marry.
1 Timothy 4 New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995)
4 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, 3 men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; 5 for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.
6 In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.
CATHOLIC TRADITION - Mary never had other children after the Lord Jesus. She remained a perpetual virgin.
Matthew 13:55-56 New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995)
55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”
CATHOLIC TRADITION - Mary is the queen of heaven.
Jeremiah 7:18-19 New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995)
18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to spite Me. 19 Do they spite Me?” declares the Lord. “Is it not themselves they spite, to their own shame?”
CATHOLIC TRADITION - Forbidding the priesthood to marry.Err.. you really have no clue about Catholicism
Only in the Latin rite are married men not allowed to be priests - and that's ONLY a discipline - not a tradition and far from being a doctrine by any means
In every other rite of the Catholic church - whether Maronite or Syro-Malabar or the Anglican rite (for those converting from Anglicanism), married men can become priests
Married Catholic Priests? I Am One
Married priests in the Catholic Church? It's not really new. I am one. As a former Anglican minister, I have been ordained as a Catholic priest under a special measure called the Pastoral Provision even though I have a wife and four children.
Through this process a married man who has been ordained in the Anglican Church (and sometimes the Lutheran and Methodist churches) is granted a dispensation from the vow of celibacy in order to be ordained as a Catholic priest.
The reason I was permitted to be ordained is that celibacy for priests is a discipline of the church, not a doctrine. That is why exceptions can be made and the rule could be changed.
In fact, the Eastern Orthodox churches (and the Eastern Rite churches in communion with the Vatican) have had married priests for a long time.
St. Paul also says that his opinion that the unmarried remain so is not mandated from the Lord (I Cor. 7.25). Because it is only Paul's opinion the rule could be changed.
Bishop Robert Guglielmone, far right, with Father Dwight Longenecker and his wife and four children at the dedication of the new Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Greenville, South Carolina.
THE REVEREND DWIGHT LONGENECKER |
Sigh... Mary never had other children after the Lord Jesus.
there is no evidence that Mary had other children. More specifically, the Christian writers of the first century give no evidence indicating that the “brothers” are children of Mary, mother of Jesus.
The evidence we do have is the following. Paul, in Galatians 1:19, refers to meeting “James, brother of the Lord.” Paul refers to multiple “brothers of the Lord” in another epistle but does not name them. “Brother of the Lord” is clearly a title held by a small number—likely relatives of Jesus—but little more can be said from that. The Gospels of Mark and Matthew name them. Mark 6:3 says that Jesus’ brothers are “James and Joses and Judas and Simon.” Matthew 13:55 has “James and Joseph and Simon and Judas.” At this point the “brothers” appear to be associated with Jesus’ mother Mary and his “sisters.”
However, the names appear again later in each Gospel at the Crucifixion. Matthew 27:56 says that among those at the cross were “Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.” Likewise, Mark 15:40 has “Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.” The form of the names given in each Gospel match the forms of the first two “brothers” of Jesus and clearly refer to them. But this “Mary” is never identified as the mother of Jesus, which one would expect if she were. That is, women were always identified by their husbands or by their eldest sons. Since this Mary is never identified by Matthew and Mark as being Jesus’ mother, it appears that the Gospel writers are identifying another Mary as the mother of the brothers. . At best, then, they can only be cousins of Jesus and not children of Mary.
This is supported independently by the Gospel of John, which identifies “his mother’s sister, Mary, wife of Clopas” as being at the cross. It seems clear that the Gospels do not recognize Mary as being the mother of the “brothers.” Catholic teaching, then, is based on this understanding of the Gospels and not some arcane attempt to keep Mary as a virgin.