Posted on 05/11/2009 11:22:31 AM PDT by DrGop0821
He did wrong, but I give him credit for manning up without blaming anyone else for his fall.
The difference is that the guy doesn’t waste four years in seminary only to be washed out because he decides at the end not to take the vow.
It’s just weird. People will say taking the vow is optional, that they don’t have to take it. It’s like the people who say abortion doesn’t kill a life, but the practical result is that there will be no baby born as a result. Same thing here. Taking the celibacy vow is optional ut if you do not take it you will not be a priest. It is a de facto ban on those who know themselves and realize they would break that vow.
Why is it so much better for a candidate to take the vow, then later break it, versus the man who is honest and knows he will want a wife, and declines the vow? Why is the priest who breaks his vow a better candidate than the guy who gets washed out because he won’t take a vow he believes he cannot keep?
One of the Catholic apologist sites says, well, not everyone lives up to the vows they take, either priests who take the celibacy vow, or those that take a marriage vow. Well, then, what a nice bow on that little problem.
But the fact remains, just as there is no requirement to be married to be a priest, there is no biblical requirement to have to take a vow of celibacy in order to be a priest, either. Celibacy, a gift of God, was never a requirement for a church elder/deacon when you look at the list of criteria. Now some have gone overboard and say priests and such should be married, but that isn’t a MUST BE condition, it is a IF THEY ARE, THEY MUST BE condition. It leaves the door open that marriage is an accpetable option for clergy if they do not possess the gift of celibacy.
I should also point out that spiritual gifts from God are not constant over a person’s entire life either. Some gifts come, some gifts may go. Take for instance the gifts of healing and miracles the Apostles could do in the years right after Jesus’ ascension. But several decades later, Paul’s writings indicate that he no longer had that gift. Especially talking about timothy’s condition, and the condition of several other believers. He did not write about going to them, or them coming to him, in order for him to use his God-given gift of healing, he no longer had that ability.
I would propose that the gift of celibacy, like any other spiritual gift, may not last throughout a person’s entire lifetime. Another reason not to use such a vow as a litmus test, or filtering device, as to who gets to be a priest or not.
Me, too. All those good lucks would be wasted on another man, LOL.
Yes, they do, but if the Church didn’t force celibacy, they wouldn’t have to promise to do something that is almost impossible. That’s why there are so many priests who are sinning against God with other men or women.
Can someone correct me if I am wrong on this matter? I was always under the impression that at times married men were ordained priests (and still are) yet the Church has never allowed celibate priests marry after ordination.
If you want to marry and yet still be in the Church, just become a Deacon, heck most of the time at our Church it is the Deacon that gives the homily.
Noone is forced celibacy. A seminarian usually has 6 years to figure these things out. Likewise, I would imagine there is a good number of people who find it "almost impossible" to remain faithful to their spouse for an entire lifetime.
I always wonder when news stories appear about a priest with sticky fingers in the collection plate we don't hear folks clamoring for the Church to reexamine vows of poverty or "simple life." After all, if Father had more money he would not be sinning by embezzlement or hanging out at the casino.
That is because “poverty” is a subjective, relative term.
“Celibacy” is an extremely clearly-defined term.
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