"Why can’t priests marry?"
Why didn't Simon-Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the less, Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, and Matthias get married?
Because they had a job to do. Their mission was to spread the Gospel, encourage fellow Christians, and set the example for purity.
In so doing, they led lives in total devotion to God.
I expect the precise same from the priests at my church.
I expect to hear the Gospel, be encouraged, and see the example for purity at all times.
Jesus commanded the Apostles to lead extremely modest lives, taking with them simple clothes and sandals. Today, Priests carry on these traditions with simple dress and lifestyles. Priests are also expected to have very humble financial conditions. A marriage would be detrimental to that.
Married priests would have less time to devote to fellow Christians in need (they would often have to choose between God's needs and the wife's needs).
+
If they are good enough to hear confession, baptize and deliver the sacraments anywhere, then they are good enough to hear confession, baptize and deliver sacraments anywhere.
One of the great strengths of an unmarried clergy is their availability.
The question of a married priesthood recently surfaced at the Synod of Bishops, held at the Vatican in October 2005. Curiously, the most serious criticisms of ordaining married men came from exponents of the Eastern Rite Churches, in which married priesthood is the norm.
Cardinal Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir, patriarch of the Maronites of Lebanon, said:
“Half of our diocesan priests are married. However, we must admit that the marriage of priests, even if resolving one problem, also creates other serious problems. A married priest has the duty of taking care of his wife and children, to ensure their education, to secure for them a certain social standing. The priesthood was also a means of social promotion in Lebanon. Another problem arises for a married priest, that of not having misunderstandings with the parishioners. Despite this, it can be the case that the bishop cannot transfer him, due to the impossibility of his family to move with him.”
It is precisely for the above reasons that the Maronite Catholic Church will not assign their married priests to a parishes in the diaspora. As Cardinal Sfeir also noted, matching a married priest and his family to a parish poses unique challenges. When things don't work out, it is far more costly to relocate the entire family than a celibate priest.
For a more personal and introspective understanding of this struggle, read this article from my bishop.
My experience of priestly celibacy in the Maronite Church in America
This is the crux of not only this argument, but many others. The entire idea of sacrifice bringing a person closer to God has been thrown out wholesale by a good many modernists. It goes against human nature, but God's call usually does.
Pope: Priests Must Stay Celibate
Giving Thanks for the Good Shepherds ( A Defense of Priestly Celibacy)
Don't end celibacy for priests
The celibate superhero
Priestly Celibacy And Its Roots In Christ
How to Refute Arguments Against Priestly Celibacy
Priestly Celibacy Reflects Who - and Whose - We Are[Father George W.Rutler]
Celibacy
Tracing the Glorious Origins of Celibacy
God’s call to celibacy for the sake of His Kingdom - by Card. George
Vatican Says Celibacy Rule Nonnegotiable
Bishop Attacks Move to End Celibacy
A response to Fr. Joseph Wilson's defense of mandatory celibacy
The gift of Priestly celibacy as a sign of the charity of Christ, by Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Archbishop Dolan:"We Need to Be Renewing Our Pledge to Celibacy, Not Questioning It"
Celibacy is gift cherished by church
Celibacy Will Save the Priesthood
Celibacy Defended by EWTN's Fr. Levis
Call To Action: Dump Celibacy
The (Catholic) Church Has Always Prospered When Celibacy Is Honored
John Paul II Hails "Inestimable Value" of Priestly Celibacy
For Priests, Celibacy Is Not the Problem
Fr. Shannon Collins Discusses Celibacy
5 Arguments Against (Catholic) Priestly Celibacy and How to Refute Them
Why A Married Priesthood Won't Remedy the Priest Shortage
New Vatican Document on Homosexuality and the Priesthood Coming Before Fall 2005
Catholic priests demand the right to marry
Catholic priests urge Church to reconsider celibacy rules
Alternative Priests´ Council Hits Back on Mandatory Celibacy
Married Priests? The English Experience
Saying Yes to God: a Look into Vocations
New Vatican Document to Eliminate 1961 Papal Ban on Ordaining Homosexuals
Saying Yes to God: a Look into Vocations
Is it time to ordain married men to the Catholic priesthood?
40% of Scots priests want end to celibacy
A small, sturdy band of 'John Paul priests'(JPII legacy of conservative priests)
Yes, Gay Men Should Be Ordained
Cardinal says Priests will marry
Fathers, Husbands and Rebels: Married Priests
An Unneeded Headache (Vatican document on [NOT] admitting homosexual to the priesthood)
Vatican Prepares Draft Directives Against Admitting Gays as Priests
From Anglican to married Catholic priest
Spain gets first married priest
Spain (R) Catholic Church ordains first married priest
The Catholic Church - East-West Difference Over Priestly Celibacy
ROMAN CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF SCRANTON TO RECEIVE FIRST ECUSA PRIEST
Defending Chastity in the Priesthood
Ordination of married men is raised at Vatican synod
Patriarch of Venice deemphasizes ordination of married men to the priesthood
Cardinal Pell: Ending Celibacy Rule Would Be a Blunder
Priest shortage stems from crisis of faith, ignorance of the infinite, not celibacy, say Bishops [at Synod]
Synod Affirms Priestly Celibacy
Married Priests Aren’t the Answer (a seminarian states his view)
5 Arguments Against Priestly Celibacy and How to Refute Them
(Catholic) Church makes a clear distinction between chastity and celibacy, says Priest
I don't really think this argument is solid. What it lacks is the acknowledgment that there are priests in a variety of positions. Celibacy is clearly an advantage (required, really) for Missionaries, or the Priests of centuries ago who were basically itinerant, moving from village to village.
But for Priests who are in teaching orders, or assigned to a suburban parish where they will stay for years (and, unfortunately rarer today, often with an assistant, a nun, and lay assistants), the argument isn't so clear.
Are we better off with some married priests in teaching orders, or with more lay professors? Are we better off with larger parishes with just one priest who has laity to do most of the work, or smaller parishes some of which have married priests?
The issue is more than just an arcane philosophical argument - there are practical issues to be concerned with, as well.
Oh, please. The indulgence racket was a shameful scandal, and the reformers were right to protest it. As for marriage, I don't know about the others, but Luther got married after he was kicked out of the Catholic church.
while Thomas Cranmer already had one hidden in Germany
Don't confuse the Anglican Schism with the Protestant Reformation. Although the Anglicans eventually adopted many Protestant ideas, the Anglican church, unlike Protestantism, was indeed born of sexual sin...and poetically, it is now dying of sexual sin. It's worth pointing out that many priests have been secretly married throughout church history, and felt no need to protest. Simply wanting to marry, isn't usually enough. Even the married Rent-a-Priests mostly would come right back to Catholicism if allowed.
he was up all night with one of his children who was seriously ill. Feeling drained and haggard, he went to Mass the next morning, and the priest celebrating Mass ...had been up all night with a parishioner’s child who was dying of meningitis. A light bulb went off over my friend’s head: You can’t do both.
In all but the smallest Protestant churches I've attended, there have been plenty of pastors, elders, assistant pastors, etc -- there's always somebody on call. If one has a family emergency of his own, another one can fill in. Opening the Catholic priesthood to married men would greatly increas the number of priests, achieving the same result.
Those who live celibately are... an “eschatological sign” for the rest of us
It loses its value as a sign, when the general public is no longer confident that the "celibate" priest, is actually celibate. Scandal taints the reputation of the honest ones, unfortunately.
for those priests who still chose not to marry: Might there not be a corresponding diminishment of their public image, so that they would tend to be regarded more as pious bachelors than a special sign among us? Their freedom to get romantically involved with female parishioners gives such questions even more point.
The Eastern Catholics and Orthodox require marriage before ordination. Problem solved.
Another practical consideration is the financial cost of allowing priests to marry
An excellent point. If you want married priests you gotta pay for them somehow. Consider tithing. Or ask the Orthodox how they do it.
Also, the ministry could be greatly expanded at very low cost by elevating married deacons (who are generally employed and supporting families on their own) to the priesthood. Such men could lighten the burdens of the celibate parish priests (eg, by being on call an occasional night, performing weddings, that sort of thing).
It is clear that not a few homosexual men have entered the priesthood partly as a “cover” for their condition. Arguably, it would only make matters worse if they had to take on a wife as additional camouflage.
If married priests were considered normal, and straight men who intended to marry were numerous in seminaries, the homosexuals would not be able to use it as a refuge in the first place! It's well documented that homosexuals have bullied a lot of normal men out of seminary. One married Catholic deacon who posts at FR, pointed out that the homosexual priests fear nothing more than the possibility of a married priesthood being introduced.
In any event, it wouldn’t stop some of them from going after teenage boys, as has been amply demonstrated in other clerical milieu.
One Protestant church I attended, had 5 pastors. 4 were married; the single one was caught messing with a boy. So yes, it happens in other clerical milieu.
if you don’t find a sexual outlet, you become neurotic, or even worse.
If you don't have the gift of celibacy, that's true. I was unwillingly single, and a virgin (barely) til 38, and I can tell you that being single way too long was very damaging.
the libido doesn’t plot revenge if for whatever reason one is continent for a period of time.
Well, mine does.... LOL!