Replies

I was before I was married at 24. It was not impossible for me then, nor is it impossible for priests now. Grow up. Quit living life and believing as if that thing between your legs rules your mind and your soul. It doesn't.

Dear Polycarp:
Wake up. Why do you think the Church is having so hard a time recruiting in its seminaries or why so many hetrosexual priests are leaving the pulpit? Clinging to such an antiquated (and unScripturely sound) ideal as celibacy is only leaving the Roman Church with empty altars--and vacant pews because of it>

Two points:
1. Claiming that one does not need to be an adulterer to understand adultery is not the same as needing to be married to understand marriage. Too many married pastors have discovered how humbling, and instructive it is to be married. And how much they need to adjust their understanding of God's Word after they get married. Many a Youth Pastor has been brought up short once he has gotten married.(I know you didn't make this point - it was made above)

2. Again not your point - but, if there are so many men available for the priesthood, why is it that the bishops refuse to release me from civilian parishes to enter the military chaplaincy? There are approx 1100 chaplains in the Army (active duty). Statistically, 1/3rd should be priests. Yet, less than 100 are now on active duty, and most of those are over the age of 55. When I was a chaplain, we had one priest that was over 70, from Poland, and could barely speak English. He was a wonderful, godly man, but he did not belong in the Army!

Re: interpretation of Scripture, and particularly 1 Tim 3 ( Titus 1:6,7 also). There can only be one meaning - God did not write the Scriptures for each group to take its own interpretation. And frankly, I believe the Roman Catholic Church is wrong on the issue of marriage of priests. Paul says to Titus "if any man is above reproach (that leaves out the pedophiles), the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion ( I wonder how many that would exclude)." 1 Tim says the same thing. These are the only places in the New Testament where Paul lays out the qualifications for an elder/presbyter/overseer. This is pretty clear. Paul knew that the priesthood would be demanding, and that men needed to lead a credible life before the people to be heard and followed. In all of the discussion about celibacy, these seem to be the least mentioned passages, and yet the most definitive.

Grace and peace to all

Wake up.

My recollection is that you identify yourself as an "Episcopalian". If by that you mean ECUSA, you are a member of a group which endorses abortion, including partial-birth abortion; which says it has no "core doctrine" prohibiting the ordination of openly practicing homosexuals' and which tolerates an apostate non-Christian who claims to be a "bishop," namely one John Shelby Spong.

Why don't you clean up your own septic tank before complaining about ours?

Why do you think the Church is having so hard a time recruiting in its seminaries

Because some Catholic individuals have decided to be protestant, picking and choosing which doctrines on sexual morality to which to adhere, in this case homosexuality, thus discouraging good orthodox heterosexual Catholic candidates who can and would be celibate from entering the priesthood.

This has nothing, NOTHING to do with priestly celibacy.

If it did, protestants would have no problems with pederasty, because their ministers can marry.

Yet protestants have just as big a problem, if not greater, than the RCC, but it is not on the agenda of the NWO to destroy protestantism. Why? Because Satan knows the right address. Protestantism is not Satan's adversary. Roman Catholicism is. Therefore the media is relatively silent on the equal number of these cases among protestant ministers.

You are an Episcopalian according to your profile page. I am a Catholic. Is it any of my business that you belong to a church whose very existence is rooted in the frustrated, illicit and adulterous desires of a mere king, Henry VIII, who could not obtain papal approval to abandon his legitimate wife after more than twenty years of marriage for another woman whom he later beheaded at an early stage in his career as a regal male Liz Taylor?

Why is it any of your business whether the Roman Catholic Church to which you do NOT belong maintains a celibate priesthood? Should either of us be pushing rabbis to eat pork or lobster? Do you have any suggestions as to how Muslims ought to pray? Any advice for atheists or agnostics on how to best practice their atheism or agnosticism?

I would point out that Roman Catholicism, even in its gravely afflicted AmChurch form, has yet to consecrate lesbian bishops. Clean up your own tiny backyard before sticking your nose into the vast estate next door which your theological ancestor Henry VIII abandoned NOT for doctrinal reasons but to facilitate his serial adulteries.