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To: SeekAndFind; SoFloFreeper

I would tend to agree with SoFloFreeper on this; it would not be a bad idea to allow priests to marry. The reason I have is a pragmatic one. Catholics, like most other Christians, often look to the priest for guidance in their lives. One aspect of our lives that often presents difficult situations is our relationships with our spouses. A married priest is more likely to have a better understanding of marital problems than an unmarried, celibate one. Some things cannot be learned in seminary, but only by experience.

If I am not mistaken, in the Orthodox rite, priests aspiring to leadership positions in the church hierarchy are NOT allowed to be married, but those who are the equivalent of the parish priests in the Roman rite are. I would think such a rule would work well for the Roman rite as well.


24 posted on 06/11/2014 9:40:04 AM PDT by stremba
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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: 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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