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MARRIED PRIESTS WILL ALWAYS BE AN EXCEPTION (in the Catholic Church)
zna ^ | March 9, 2010 | Carmen Elena Villa

Posted on 03/09/2010 4:51:43 PM PST by NYer

ROME, MARCH 9, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Married priests are an exception and the Church is increasingly convinced that they must remain so, according to a spiritual theology professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.

Father Laurent Touze explained the foundations of priestly celibacy when he spoke at a two-day conference held last week at Rome's Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.  The conference, "Priestly Celibacy: Theology and Life," was sponsored by the Congregation for the Clergy as an event for the Year for Priests.

ZENIT spoke with Father Touze about the exceptions to priestly celibacy and the future of celibacy for the Church.
 
ZENIT: Is celibacy a dogma of faith or a discipline?
 
Father Touze: Neither one nor the other. It isn't a dogma of faith because we see married priests in the Church today such as, for example, some [priests] of the Eastern Catholic Church. Not all but some admit married priests. Or as has been reminded recently in the Holy Father's motu propio "Anglicanorum coetibus," published last Nov. 4: Among the ex-Anglicans who want to return to communion with the Catholic Church, there will be married priests admitted.

ZENIT: With this measure, do you think that one day, celibacy might become voluntary also for priests of the Latin rite?
 
Father Touze: No, because the Church is understanding more and more the relation between priesthood, episcopate and celibacy. It is something that could be likened to the revelation of a dogma, though it isn't so at this time; one tends increasingly to understand that a practice must be promoted among all priests and also among Eastern Catholic priests which is truly similar to the one lived in the first centuries.
 
ZENIT: But in the first centuries there were many married priests, including the Apostles?
 
Father Touze: Studies have convincingly shown that this must be questioned: Celibacy of all clerics wasn't lived, but from the moment of inclusion in the priestly order these men had to live continence with the permission of their wives, because this was a commitment of the couple.
 
ZENIT: Why, then, are exceptions made?
 
Father Touze: Historically because there has been a manipulation of texts and I believe a bad translation that the Eastern Church, which has separated from Rome and has recognized that what they had declared contrary to tradition, could be accepted. In this connection there truly are some exceptions. The Church discovered that she had the possibility of admitting exceptions but that these should be understood as such. Respectably, as the Second Vatican Council stressed, there are very holy married priests in the Eastern Catholic Churches who have contributed much to the history of the Church and to the faith in times of persecution, but they are truly exceptions and must be understood as such.
 
ZENIT: However, these exceptions are not made with bishops. Does episcopal celibacy have a special meaning?
 
Father Touze: Undoubtedly. It is very different, both theologically as well as historically. What's more, with the constitution "Lumen Gentium," Vatican II defined that the episcopate is the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders. It is necessary to discover the specificity of the episcopate and, hence, episcopal celibacy. And it can be demonstrated with the fact that for the celibacy or continence of a bishop an exception has never been made.
 
This is something studied by the Church on which the Roman pontificate has had to reflect more recently in contemporary history on two occasions: after the French Revolution, where some bishops, or better, former bishops, asked to marry.
 
This has been studied and it has been said that it is impossible, that this had never been done, that at stake was the dogmatic issue. Or still recently with the ordination of married men and married bishops that were effected in former Czechoslovakia by imposition or with the pressure of the Communist Party in power. There also the Church affirmed on the fact that the bishop must always be celibate or if he had married before his ordination because he would have to live continence from the moment of his episcopal ordination.


TOPICS: Catholic; History; Religion & Culture; Worship
KEYWORDS: celibacy; priesthood

1 posted on 03/09/2010 4:51:43 PM PST by NYer
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To: netmilsmom; thefrankbaum; markomalley; Tax-chick; GregB; saradippity; Berlin_Freeper; Litany; ...

Catholic ping!


2 posted on 03/09/2010 4:52:03 PM PST by NYer ("Where Peter is, there is the Church." - St. Ambrose of Milan)
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To: NYer

I was a catholic my whole life till 18 and then saw the light. The bible teaches its not good for a man to be alone. Unless he has the gift. sorry but thats next to impossible. The teachings are traditions of men, jesus hated tradtions of men big time


3 posted on 03/09/2010 4:55:22 PM PST by truthbetold11 (truthbetold11)
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To: NYer

I was a catholic my whole life till 18 and then saw the light. The bible teaches its not good for a man to be alone. Unless he has the gift. sorry but thats next to impossible. The teachings are traditions of men, jesus hated tradtions of men big time


4 posted on 03/09/2010 4:55:42 PM PST by truthbetold11 (truthbetold11)
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To: Zetman

Ping!


5 posted on 03/09/2010 4:59:46 PM PST by NYer ("Where Peter is, there is the Church." - St. Ambrose of Milan)
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To: truthbetold11
Christianity praises both the Christian family and the celibate life for Christ's sake. See:

1st Corinthians, Chapter 7

6 posted on 03/09/2010 5:09:17 PM PST by iowamark
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To: truthbetold11
The bible teaches its not good for a man to be alone. Unless he has the gift.

Jesus was celibate; so was Paul. The only Apostle we know for a fact was married, was St. Peter. There is no evidence that his wife was still alive when he was asked to follow Jesus.

The teachings are traditions of men, jesus hated tradtions of men big time

Paul illustrated what tradition is: "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. . . . Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed" (1 Cor. 15:3,11). The apostle praised those who followed Tradition: "I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I have delivered them to you" (1 Cor. 11:2).

The first Christians "devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching" (Acts 2:42) long before there was a New Testament. From the very beginning, the fullness of Christian teaching was found in the Church as the living embodiment of Christ, not in a book. The teaching Church, with its oral, apostolic tradition, was authoritative. Paul himself gives a quotation from Jesus that was handed down orally to him: "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).

This saying is not recorded in the Gospels and must have been passed on to Paul. Indeed, even the Gospels themselves are oral tradition which has been written down (Luke 1:1–4). What’s more, Paul does not quote Jesus only. He also quotes from early Christian hymns, as in Ephesians 5:14. These and other things have been given to Christians "through the Lord Jesus" (1 Thess. 4:2).

Jesus said, "And why do you transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?" (Matt. 15:3). Paul warned, "See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ" (Col. 2:8). But these verses merely condemn erroneous human traditions, not truths which were handed down orally and entrusted to the Church by the apostles. These latter truths are part of what is known as apostolic tradition, which is to be distinguished from human traditions or customs.

7 posted on 03/09/2010 5:09:32 PM PST by NYer ("Where Peter is, there is the Church." - St. Ambrose of Milan)
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To: truthbetold11

You wrote:

“The bible teaches its not good for a man to be alone. Unless he has the gift. sorry but thats next to impossible.”

Jesus teaches the impossible?

“The teachings are traditions of men, jesus hated tradtions of men big time”

Jesus taught that to avoid the married life to serve God more fully was a good thing. Let those who are called to it do it. Don’t stand in their way just because you lack that gift.


8 posted on 03/09/2010 5:38:58 PM PST by vladimir998 (Part of the Vast Catholic Conspiracy (hat tip to Kells))
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To: truthbetold11

You write that being a priest means a man is alone. None of us is ever alone — not even the priest, because our guardian angels are with us all the time, and God is within us. For Catholics who have received the Eucharist — Christ within us.


9 posted on 03/09/2010 6:13:01 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: truthbetold11

**I was a catholic my whole life till 18 **

You were baptized a Catholic, correct?

Then you are still a Catholic. The mark of a Catholic baptism NEVER leaves a person’s soul.


10 posted on 03/09/2010 6:13:59 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: truthbetold11
The teachings are traditions of men,

You haven't learned much about Scripture since you turned 18.

11 posted on 03/09/2010 6:34:12 PM PST by A.A. Cunningham (Barry Soetoro is a Kenyan communist)
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To: NYer

Married priests....


12 posted on 03/09/2010 9:35:37 PM PST by onedoug
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To: NYer

I wish other types of Christians would look at the Catholics who really HATE celibacy in the Catholic Church. They are all liberal wackadoos!! That is who they are agreeing with. Our liberals are not your liberals.

Freegards


13 posted on 03/09/2010 10:24:08 PM PST by Ransomed (Son of Ransomed Says Keep the Faith!)
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To: truthbetold11

That’s sad. The bible as birthed by tradition with the grace of God is the light and life of The Church. Leaving the Church is sad. I wish you well in your journey and pray that you return to God’s Church


14 posted on 03/10/2010 2:56:33 AM PST by Cronos (Philipp2:12, 2Cor5:10, Rom2:6, Matt7:21, Matt22:14, Lu12:42-46,John15:1-10,Rev2:4-5,Rev22:19)
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To: Salvation
The mark of a Catholic baptism NEVER leaves a person’s soul.

The same can be said of a Protestant baptism, yes?
15 posted on 03/10/2010 9:56:57 AM PST by armydoc
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To: Cronos

The Roman Catholic Church did not give man the Bible, God gave man the Bible. “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” II Peter 1:21. “All scripture is given by God” II Timothy 3:16. Man is answerable only to God not to the RCC.

Also, the idea that the Roman Catholic Church can be traced to Peter as the first Pope is pure fantasy. Paul led early church councils not Peter who by the way was married. History will easily verify that there was no true pope as we know today until the fifth century. There are no priests even mentioned in the NT, except in the context of the priesthood of ALL believers.


16 posted on 03/10/2010 9:57:56 AM PST by defensemin
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To: defensemin

Your feeble attempt at revisionist history exposes your lack of knowledge of Scripture, the actual history of Christianity and the bride of Christ.


17 posted on 03/10/2010 11:33:10 AM PST by A.A. Cunningham (Barry Soetoro is a Kenyan communist)
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To: defensemin

The Apostolic Church was the instrument in which the Bible was compiled — otherwise tell me how you know that the Didace, the Gospel of Thomas and the Acts of Paul and Theda are not inspired?


18 posted on 03/10/2010 7:58:27 PM PST by Cronos (Philipp2:12, 2Cor5:10, Rom2:6, Matt7:21, Matt22:14, Lu12:42-46,John15:1-10,Rev2:4-5,Rev22:19)
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To: defensemin

And actually, history easily verifies that there were Bishops of Rome as early as Anacletus and that Peter was acknowledged as the first bishop of Rome, just as St. Mark was the first bishop of Alexandria etc.


19 posted on 03/10/2010 7:59:26 PM PST by Cronos (Philipp2:12, 2Cor5:10, Rom2:6, Matt7:21, Matt22:14, Lu12:42-46,John15:1-10,Rev2:4-5,Rev22:19)
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