Posted on 10/11/2018 5:57:51 PM PDT by marshmallow
A Belgian bishop called Wednesday for married men to be allowed into the priesthood, a hot-button topic within the Roman Catholic church as it grapples with falling priest numbers and sexual abuse scandals.
"I am convinced that some young people, who have drawn from the baptismal vocation their call to wed, would gladly say 'here I am' if the church were to call them to the priestly ministry," Bishop Jean Kockerols told a global meeting of bishops being held at the Vatican.
He said the ordination of married men would help attract more priests to the calling.
Kockerols, Auxiliary Bishop of Brussels, was speaking on behalf of all Belgian bishops, a spokesman of the Belgian episcopal conference told the religious website "CathoBel".
The debate as to whether celibacy fosters sexual dysfunction and abusive behaviour in prelates has intensified in recent years.
Pope Francis has signalled that he is open to considering changing the doctrine to allow the ordination of married men.
But Belgian episcopal spokesman Tommy Scholtes warned that, in terms of the vocation crisis, it was "not the only solution".
"We know that in the Protestant or Orthodox world too, where pastors can marry, it is difficult to find young men to serve the church," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at ph.news.yahoo.com ...
100% agree. I know a few Deacons who are amazing Catholics and love Spreading the word!
First things first. Clean out the sodomites and we can talk.
It’d also be good up have a heterosexual check on the gay subculture from which most of these predators emerge.
Increasingly I think a Sodomite cabal are the ones resisting married priests.
Absolutely,,,,
No need. If a married guy wants to serve at Mass he can study to be a Deacon.
The ordained Priest is ‘married’ to the Church. Too many responsibilities to the Church and the flock to be burdened with spuose and/or familial obligations.
Those that cannot become a pilot can often still be a navigator. They both participate in flying the plane. Same principal.
Actually, they are the ones who are pushing it. The whole agenda is to push sexual license and disparage chastity and sexual self-control. Eliminating celibacy is but another step toward accepting sexually active homosexuals.
One or more Belgian bishops have also been big advocates of having queers in the priesthood. Why should anyone agree with the same crowd on anything else regarding the priesthood?
Like in Africa? Or am I not supposed to know about that?
having married men can help with that
Marriage is a sacrament, stop trying to make it sound like a sin.
the Catholic church, if it allows this, must be firm that homosexual marriage is not to be tolerated between priests, because I can see a big push for this...
tell us what you know about Africa....
I have done no such thing. I hold the value of marriage in great esteem for the laity. But celibacy, when offered as a voluntary gift to God, is a higher calling. Thus both Jesus and Paul teach.
Even in marriage there must be the sacrificial gift of chastity. Both of these are against the drive for sexual license. The celibate priesthood, like chaste marriage, is a sign of contradiction against a world that wants no restraints against sexual freedom. For them, as long as there is consent, you can do whatever you want, with whomever you want, whenever you want. For this reason the sacrificial self-constraint of celibacy must be destroyed, just as they destroyed chaste marriage by promoting divorce and birth-control.
Their wives will ensure celibacy.
Another factor in the demise of mandatory celibacy, according to McBrien, is that many priests, especially in Latin America and Africa, ignore the rule anyway.
“Celibacy isn’t practiced there in large measure,” says McBrien. “The people understand that the priest has his ‘wife’…his children, his family. They accept it,” he says. The Church chooses to ignore that situation, says McBrien.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/married-catholic-priests/
interesting......
Won’t happen unless a priest from and Anglican, Lutheran, etc. church becomes a Catholic and is grandfathered in.
If his wife dies, however, he may not remarry.
The life of a man without a wife is a pity An empty shell
And without proginy ? Empty and selfish
The good lord made woman. Perfectly. To complete man
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