Vatican Document Calls Celibacy Non-Negotiable

The San Diego Channel ^ | 6/28/03 | Associated Press

[MVV]

UPDATED: 4:42 p.m. EDT June 28, 2003

VATICAN CITY -- The Catholic Church's celibacy requirement for priests is non-negotiable.

That's the word from the Vatican.

The celibacy rule was reaffirmed in a wide-ranging document issued Saturday.

It acknowledges that fewer and fewer men are signing up for the priesthood. But it says letting priests marry isn't the answer.

Instead, it says current priests should dedicate themselves to attracting more candidates by better explaining the priesthood to lay Catholics, and by encouraging children to consider religious vocations.

The document touched on a host of other issues, including a call for Europe to be more welcoming to immigrants.

It also called for the "full participation" of women in the life of the church. But the Vatican says that doesn't mean as priests, since only men can be ordained.

Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[sinkspur]

Touching post, Sink, and very sad.

It is sad, that these men are enduring a purgatory on earth. It's the middle-aged guys that it hits hardest.

If the IBM Corporation had been losing employees at the rate the Catholic Church has been hemorrhaging priests over the last 20 years, the Board of Directors would have spent millions to determine why, and would have demanded to know what could be done to attract suitable candidates.

The Catholic Church is reduced to, in my parish, handing out a chalice at every Mass on Sunday to a little family, who then prays for vocations over the dinner table.

It reminds me of that worn-out story of the guy in a flood, on his house, who prays to God to save him. I'm sure you know it. First the helicopter, then two boats. The guy finally ends up drowning.

He gets to heaven and asks God "Where were you?" God says "I sent you a helicopter and two boats."

There are solutions to the shortage of priests, but they're not going to come from this Pope.

[Notwithstanding]

As a cleric, you're attitude of disdain toward the Vatican is shameful.

You are most definitely part of the problem with the crisis of faith and the crisis of disobedience.

[Notwithstanding]

thanks for posting something so utterly stupid

[BenR2]

You are out of line, sir, with that comment. It is mean, over-generalized, is based on your own leaps of faith, or lack thereof, and lacks substantive argumentation. There is no reason to give hurt to others in such a gratuitous way. It offends at least this near atheistic secular type. Bashing religions in that way, particularly religions other than yours, is very low-brow, unnecessary, and unhelpful. And I am tired of it on this forum, and want it to stop. JMO.

////
After boiling down your (admittedly gorgeous) prose, I gather that your basic point is that: My post is out of line, because it offends your aesthetic sensibilities (as well as the feelings of some Catholics)? Translation: My post is not politically correct -- is THAT it?

In that case: Thank you for validating my post as right on.

P.S. I was raised Roman Catholic, so that I speak from first-hand experience.

[gcruse]

Celibacy’s history of power and money

[AlaskaErik]

Thank god!

Thank God for what? An idiotic policy that has no biblical basis? It's pretty obvious that the church is attracting way too many homosexuals and others with deep rooted issues. Time to join the 21st century.

[WOSG]

the previous post, #22, is a good history of the matter. it refutes several of your points.

[Notwithstanding]

Here you are talking out of your ass.
As usual.

You make a balnket statemnt that is absolutely false.

I know two priests who had a heterosexual dalliance and their bishops assisted them in backing away, and recommiting themselves to celibate priesthood. They are both wonderful priests.

[Torie]

No, it is just impolite and vicious. It has nothing to do with PC. Heck I weigh in on Catholic affairs uninvited, but when I do, I try to be polite, and respectful of others' faith. It is a matter of good manners. What you said, has no redeeming social value, sort of like pornography, in the eyes of some.

[AlaskaErik]

The document touched on a host of other issues, including a call for Europe to be more welcoming to immigrants.

Welcoming the Religion of Peace into Europe can only come from what I would consider the Religion of Ignorance. Nothing like inviting in those who seek to destroy you. Me thinks there is too much senility in the upper echelons.

[Notwithstanding]

The Church imposes celibacy on noone.

She simply limits who she invites to be ordained to the priesthood.

Its all strictly voluntary.

[Antoninus]

The Vatican gives no evidence, of course, hoping that by fiat its declaration reflects reality.

Unlike the Supreme Court, with whom you agree so readily when they're issuing directives legalizing homo-sex, it's totally within the rights of the Vatican to issue orders by fiat.

Live with it.

[sinkspur]

The Catholic Church is so awesome because it will not change with the new fads that come along with the times. I'm so happy to be a Catholic.

You should be happy to know that there are 200 Protestant clergy who have converted to Catholicism, have been ordained Catholic priests, and 98% of them have brought their wives and children with them.

Is that a "fad" in your estimation?

Are the 15,000 deacons, 98% of whom are married, a "fad"?

The doctrines of the Church never change; the practices do, and more need to.

[Antoninus]

But I'm an atheist, so what do I know?

Good point.

[Notwithstanding]

I am amazed that, since you have such strong feelings about all these issues, that you aren't spending more time working in your own parish and tyour own diocese to fix everything.

As far as I can tell, you a clergyman who spends a big lot of his time pissing and moaning about the clergy he works for here at FR.

What a wonderful example you are setting for us all.

[Notwithstanding]

I am amazed that, since you have such strong feelings about all these issues, that you aren't spending more time working in your own parish and tyour own diocese to fix everything.

As far as I can tell, you're a clergyman who spends a big lot of his time pissing and moaning about the clergy he works for here at FR.

What a wonderful example you are setting for us all.

[sinkspur]

You are most definitely part of the problem with the crisis of faith and the crisis of disobedience.

There's no crisis of faith in my heart. If anything, I'm more convinced than ever that the Holy Spirit is stirring the pot, so to speak.

As far as "disobedience" is concerned, nobody's told me I can't talk about this.

Let me ask you: if you were drawing water out of a well, and the well started going dry, how would you respond to someone who said " The answer here is clear: Pray that God fills the well with water"?

This isn't doctrine, ntwtstndg. It's practice, and the Vatican has admitted that celibacy is not integral to the Latin Rite priesthood by allowing 200 married Protestant ministers to jump the fence and be ordained.

[sinkspur]

I know two priests who had a heterosexual dalliance and their bishops assisted them in backing away, and recommiting themselves to celibate priesthood.

Those are the first two I've ever heard of.

Good for them.

Most priests who have dalliances with women don't want to back away.

[DallasMike]

But there is good reason to believe that the priesthood has been celibate from the beginning and through most of history, although there have been periods when discipline has widely lapsed, as you might expect of human beings.

Not from the very beginning. Paul, in I Corinthians 9:5, talks of Peter and other Apostles as having wives. Quite a number of the early Popes were married, too. A celibate priesthood is a recent innovation as in the last 100 years but it certainly was not a part of the early Church.

"Do we not have the right to take along a Christian wife, as do the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Kephas?"

--New American Bible (produced by U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops)

[plusone]

Thanks, interesting link. I don't think it refutes my point, it just pushes the time frame back about 500 years to about 1000 AD.