Celibacy has been the rule in the Latin West since apostolic times. See:
Posted on 12/04/2012 12:16:47 PM PST by marshmallow
WASHINGTON — An independent Roman Catholic newspaper in the United States called Monday for a campaign to reverse the Vatican's refusal to allow women to become priests.
"Barring women from ordination to the priesthood is an injustice that cannot be allowed to stand," the National Catholic Reporter said, waving a red flag in front of the Vatican over one of its most strongly held teachings.
The call to the priesthood "is a gift from God," it said, and excluding women from responding to that call "has no strong basis in Scripture or any other compelling rationale."
With bishops and theologians on record as opposing women's ordination, the Missouri-based biweekly -- a respected voice of the Church's reformist wing -- said it now fell upon the faith's rank and file to press for change.
"We must speak up in every forum available to us: in parish council meetings, faith-sharing groups, diocesan convocations and academic seminars," it said. "We should write letters to our bishops, to the editors of our local papers and television news channels."
There was no immediate reaction from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which toes a conservative line on other hot-button issues such as abortion, contraception and gay marriage.
The United States has the largest Catholic population of any rich country, with a quarter of its 310 million people belonging to the faith -- a proportion sustained by Latino immigration.
The editorial was prompted by last month's excommunication and expulsion of Father Roy Bourgeois from the Maryknoll order for his role in a women's ordination ceremony in Kentucky in 2008.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Is my Bible misprinted? I thought Jesus chose 12 apostles and I don’t recall any of them being called Rebecca, Ruth, Mary, Caroline, Shawanda, (On and on and on). Is it my Bibles fault or am I just misreading the names?
Speaking of hypocrisy, why doesn’t this crazy nun become a member of the Methodist Church. They ordain women. Her dogma certainly fits that of the Methodist Church better.
Back in the early ‘70s, the defection of so many clergy caused a morale crisis among priests. Formerly, priests recruited new seminarians with the zeal of a Marine recruiter. After the “spirit of Vatican II” did its work, they stopped doing this.
Perfect response! I’m happy to see that someone told it like it is.
My next wish would be that the bishop of the diocese formally forbid the editors from receiving the Eucharist, for leading so many astray.
All of a sudden you Catholics are Sola Scripture fanatics???
I once researched and posted here on FR some relevant statistics on that score. The Vatican's annual budget comes to about the same amount, IIRC, as the annual budget for the Oakland, CA Transit System. Their total income-producing endowments are less than those of Harvard University. Their accumulated wealth is mainly in the form of properties held in trust for worshippers, the general public, or future generations (e.g. cathedrals, vessels and vestments, art works) which can not readily, or ethically, be converted into cash.
The idea that usually accompanies the myth of "Vatican wealth" ---that the Vatican could "loosen up its purse strings" to pay for the indigent around the world --- is a real eye-roller. Since most of its money is already in charitable works, the suggestion of selling of real estate is like "Sell off some of those multi-million dollar hospitals and then do somethin' for the sick for a change, why don'cha?"
(Wish I had a smiley that rolled its eyes.)
(Dang! I gotta find me an animated smiley that rolls its eyes!)
** National Catholic Reporter**
The Fish Wrap — as we call it.
The seminaries are brimming full of young men who want to be priests. Each year ordinartions in each and every diocese of the U. S. — well almost — there’s still a couple with dissident Bishops — the problem being that the number of ordinands has not overtaken the number of retirees.
Be patient.
And these are straight young men WANTING and WILLING to serve the Lord.
Scripture is God-breathed, completely trustworthy and utterly authoritative.
Your own personal understanding of Scripture ... is not.
They are returning.
Celibacy has been the rule in the Latin West since apostolic times. See:
I’m a firm Protestant but here’s a radical suggestion for the author and those who share the same viewpoint: don’t like the Roman Catholic Church’s position on this issue? Leave and either join a religion that agrees with you or start a new one.
I agree with Rome on this per 1 Timothy 2:12-
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Timothy%202:12&version=AMP
“I allow no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to remain in quietness and keep silence [in religious assemblies].”
You wrote:
“Well as a purely practical matter the choices are coming down to: Married Priests or Women Priests or No Priests”
There are two others choices:
Traditional Religious Orders (all of which are overflowing with vocations).
Priests from overseas.
The real answer is orthodoxy. People forget that vocations fell through the floor in early 16th century Europe because of the Protestant Revolution. Then the Church entered one of its greatest eras in terms of vocations.
They were ignored.
Actually, no. That is not what happened. Celibacy was always the ideal. Celibacy was not supported because “if it was good for the papacy it was considered good for the entire Church. As a result celibacy became the established norm for the Latin Church.”
October 16, 1968
Following is the text of a statement issued by Bishop Charles H. Helmsing of Kansas City - St. Joseph (Mo) Diocese.
As the editors of the National Catholic Reporter know, I have tried as their pastor, responsible for their eternal welfare, and that of those whom they influence, to guide them on a responsible course in harmony with Catholic teachings. When private conferences were of no avail, as is well known, I had to issue a public reprimand for their policy of crusading against the Church’s teachings on the transmission of human life, and against the Gospel values of sacred virginity and dedicated celibacy as taught by the Church.
NOW, AS a last resort, I am forced as bishop to issue a condemnation of the National Catholic Reporter for its disregard and denial of the most sacred values of our Catholic faith. Within recent months the National Catholic Reporter has expressed itself in belittling the basic truths expressed in the Creed of Pope Paul VI; it has made itself a platform for the airing of heretical views on the Church and its divinely constituted structure, as taught by the First and Second Vatican Councils. Vehemently to be reprobated was the airing in recent editions of an attack on the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the virgin birth of Christ, by one of its contributors.
Finally, it has given lengthy space to a blasphemous and heretical attack on the Vicar of Christ. It is difficult to see how well instructed writers who deliberately deny and ridicule dogmas of our Catholic faith can possibly escape the guilt of the crime defined in Canon 1325 on heresy, and how they can escape the penalties of automatic excommunication entailed thereby...
The the holy monks and abbots reminded the Church that celibacy was preferred.
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