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‘The door is always open’: Celibacy for priests not unchangeable dogma, Pope Francis says
National Post ^ | 06/11/2014

Posted on 06/11/2014 9:04:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

ROME — Pope Francis says he believes that Roman Catholic priests should be celibate but the rule was not an unchangeable dogma and “the door is always open” to change.

Francis made similar comments when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires but his remarks to reporters on a plane returning from a Middle East trip were the first he has made since becoming pope.

“Celibacy is not a dogma,” he said Monday in answer to a question about whether the Catholic Church could some day allow priests to marry as they can in some other Christian Churches.

“It is a rule of life that I appreciate very much and I think it is a gift for the Church but since it is not a dogma, the door is always open,” he said.

The Church teaches that a priest should dedicate himself totally to his vocation, essentially taking the Church as his spouse, in order to help fulfill its mission.

However while priestly celibacy is a tradition going back around 1,000 years, it is not considered dogma, or an unchangeable piece of Church teaching.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: catholicism; celibacy; popefrancis; priest
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To: HiTech RedNeck

Correct. Dogma is divinely revealed. Clerical celibacy is just discipline, which is why, e.g., Eastern-Rite Catholics don’t do it (they have a different church discipline).


61 posted on 06/11/2014 11:12:40 AM PDT by Campion
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To: Responsibility2nd

Umm, no back at you. Read the ACTS of the apostles.


62 posted on 06/11/2014 11:12:44 AM PDT by OriginalChristian (The end of America, as founded, began when the first Career Politician was elected...)
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To: Responsibility2nd
Before Catholicism became a religion.

Ignatius of Antioch learned the faith from Peter and Paul directly. He refers to himself as a "bishop" of "the Catholic Church" before AD 110. What do you think happened in the third century that changed anything?

63 posted on 06/11/2014 11:16:13 AM PDT by Campion
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To: OriginalChristian

Read them. I’ve studied them and taught them. And as you know Catholicism is not mentioned in that book. The word Catholic itself was not introduced into Christianity until the 2nd century. And over time - many other unscriptual changes (such as popes in the 4th century) were made which resulted in a completely different religion.

Separate and apart from Christianity - Catholicism.


64 posted on 06/11/2014 11:29:10 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: SeekAndFind

What about same-sex marriage and polygamy for priests?


65 posted on 06/11/2014 11:32:59 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I will raise $2Million USD for Cruz and/or Palin's next run, what will you do?)
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To: AnAmericanMother

The evidence actually seems to be the other way. this little passage, written long after the events record in the Gospels, certainly suggests otherwise.

1 Corinthians 9:5

New International Version (NIV)

5 Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas[a]?

Footnotes:
a.1 Corinthians 9:5 That is, Peter


66 posted on 06/11/2014 11:35:51 AM PDT by chesley
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To: stremba

Under the ancient canons still in force among the Orthodox (and the Uniates), bishops must be celibate from their consecration forward — either ordained to the priesthood unmarried, ordained to the priesthood married and subsequently widowed, or (a very rare circumstance, though it applied to Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow) a married man who, together with his wife, by mutual agreement has taken monastic vows either before or after his ordination to the priesthood. (There is a very beautiful but rarely used rite in which spouses agreeing both to take monstatic vows bid farewell to each other before both entering their respective monasteries.)

One of the Ukranian Orthodox bishops in Canada is a widower and has a son who sits as a Justice on the Canadian Supreme Court.


67 posted on 06/11/2014 11:49:58 AM PDT by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know...)
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To: Biggirl

Many Anglican priests are joining the Roman Church who are married with children. My parents attend a Roman Catholic Church with a married priest.


68 posted on 06/11/2014 11:55:46 AM PDT by TalonDJ
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To: alloysteel
Currently, these converted priests are not allowed to serve the Eucharist.

That is false. Anglican use priests regularly perform the mass.
69 posted on 06/11/2014 11:59:29 AM PDT by TalonDJ
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To: SeekAndFind

I do wonder if the prohibition against marriage in the Roman Catholic Church has had the unexpected side effect of acting as a magnet for homosexuals to join the priesthood since if they traditionally stayed out of the priesthood they would be expected to get married and have children...

I think the original prohibition of married clergy was to prevent the whole problem of hereditary lines though the church when the hereditary lines that were in the church were seen as a threat to the feudal system’s power at that time.

Not really an issue any more, well except for the families Bush and Clinton, etc...


70 posted on 06/11/2014 12:04:29 PM PDT by GraceG
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To: Gay State Conservative
I'd have no problem with that at all.Regarding his dedication to the Lord's work the closest I've come to this is to see the dedication of married physicians to their patients.Being a physician,like being a priest,is a 24/7/365 calling and I know from personal experience (20 years working at a large hospital) that the married ones still get up at 3AM when a patient needs him/her and also works an 18 day when necessary.

One problem: the vow of poverty. If the wife divorces him, the priest has no personal assets to pay alimony or child support with.

71 posted on 06/11/2014 12:11:45 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: SoFloFreeper

Allowing priests to marry would make the RCC less of a magnet for child molesters. A celibate profession naturally becomes a magnet for people accustomed to concealing their sexual habits, and no group conceals its perversions more zealously than child molesters.


72 posted on 06/11/2014 12:33:10 PM PDT by eater-of-toast ("It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones." --Calvin Coolidge)
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To: PapaBear3625

Diocesan priests do not take vows of poverty. They take obedience, celibacy, and prayer 5 times a day. Monastics take vows of obdeience, celibacy, and poverty.

Some priests retire rather well, since there usually is someone in the parish who is a good money manager that gives free financial advice to the priest.


73 posted on 06/11/2014 1:24:48 PM PDT by Seraphicaviary (St. Michael is gearing up. The angels are on the ready line.)
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To: Gay State Conservative

I had heard there were Lavender Mafia in the seminaries, so I was on guard when I went there. I did see some men that are more effeminate than the average guy, but if there was a Lavendar Mafia, they did not approach me. Maybe it was because I was 40 at the time and former Navy. Anyone who did approach me like that would lose teeth.

I knew one seminarian who had difficulty fitting in with the population. After his second year he left. About 6 months later we all had to unfriend him on Facebook because every post was flaming pro-homosexual. He joined the Episcopalians, who are much more amenable to homosexuals. He just could not stomach staying with a religion that tells him there is something wrong with his tendencies. I figure any homosexual who makes it to high office in the RCC has to have more discipline than a Soviet deep-cover agent, because at every turn he would be face-to-face with teaching that is offensive to him.

It should be noted that I started attending at the time that Pope Benedict XVI put out the word that a man with those tendencies should not be ordained. By my third year the seminary was full, and they had to turn prospective students away. I heard other seminaries were also at capacity.


74 posted on 06/11/2014 1:42:15 PM PDT by Seraphicaviary (St. Michael is gearing up. The angels are on the ready line.)
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To: stremba
You don't have to be a woman to be an obstetrician! (I've had both male and female OBs and saw no difference in ability).

While I agree with you that young priests are sometimes a little awkward dealing with marriage issues, they are awkward on a lot of difficult issues just because of their lack of time in grade. When you're married, you only learn about your own family's issues. When you're counseling and in the confessional, you learn about everybody's.

75 posted on 06/11/2014 2:53:12 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ecce Crucem Domini, fugite partes adversae. Vicit Leo de Tribu Iuda, Radix David, Alleluia!)
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Title: Celibacy for priests not unchangeable dogma, Pope Francis says

Pope: Celibacy is not a dogma ... since it is not a dogma, the door is always open

Suspect title.


76 posted on 06/11/2014 2:57:31 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Campion

You want to talk about artificial contraception? I know I have told you that I have more Roman Catholic women seeking it than Reformed.


77 posted on 06/11/2014 3:54:24 PM PDT by Gamecock (#BringTheAdultsBackToDC)
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To: Bizhvywt

Both statements are true


78 posted on 06/11/2014 4:14:24 PM PDT by yldstrk ( My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: pbear8

Just the numbers will explain that. There are many more married men who will sexually exploit their children than priests because there are so many more of them. There are also many, many, many more married men who do not abuse their children.

There are lots of who are evil and practice evil. What I was trying to say is that the Catholic church would be very attractive to homosexuals, for the reasons I listed.


79 posted on 06/11/2014 5:33:20 PM PDT by JudyinCanada
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To: Seraphicaviary
I had heard there were Lavender Mafia in the seminaries, so I was on guard when I went there. I did see some men that are more effeminate than the average guy, but if there was a Lavendar Mafia, they did not approach me.

I don't recall which order governed the seminary he joined but it *was* in the Boston area which,it's my understanding,was a hotbed of pervert seminarians and priests at one time.In fact there's a Boston talk host,who's Catholic,who,while investigating Whitey Bulger's crime career,happened upon strong connections between Bulger and a particular local seminary that was notorious for turning out pervert priests.So maybe the problem was only "noteworthy" in limited areas.Of course Boston has been one of the nation's capitals of all sorts of immoral behaviors for decades.

80 posted on 06/11/2014 5:34:43 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Rat Party Policy:Lie,Deny,Refuse To Comply)
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