Wow. Luther proved right again.
I think they should go back to the olden days where priests could be married. Maybe it worked fine in the three digit era but the time seems past when such a universal mandate for a position that needs to be as widespread as an ordinary priest was beneficial to the church. It just ends up turning the place into a crashpad for closet gay men.Celibacy can still be available for those who still want to go the extra mile for the gold star. Either that or I guess have deacons fill the role of priests.
Maybe the Catholics were wrong to mandate priestly celibacy in the 12th century. That could explain why leadership became more selfish and corrupt in the centuries leading up to the Protestant Reformation. LOL
You think Protestant churches are free from these things?
Aye!
The Synod of Mainz (1049) forcibly dissolved clergy Marriages forcing clergy wives into convents and their children into orphanages.
This traumatic ending of clerical marriage was recalled in the 1530 Confession of Augsburg: “And in Germany, four hundred years ago for the first time, the priests were violently compelled to lead a single life, who indeed offered such resistance that the Archbishop of Mayence, when about to publish the Pope’s decree concerning this matter, was almost killed in the tumult raised by the enraged priests. And so harsh was the dealing in the matter that not only were marriages forbidden for the future, but also existing marriages were torn asunder, contrary to all laws, divine and human, contrary even to the Canons themselves, made not only by the Popes, but by most celebrated Synods.”
Yep! And the Holy Orthodox Church, too!!!!