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The Forum > General Discussion > Celibacy and the Priesthood..

Celibacy and the Priesthood..

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Strange doctrine considering apostle Peter was married and Mary had children by natural means after Jesus was born.
Posted by runner, Thursday, 12 July 2018 2:56:02 PM
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Church history provides a context here as has been
stated previously. During the first millennium the
vast majority of clergy and bishops were married, as
were many of the popes. The law of celibacy was
universally imposed on the Western church only in the
second half of the 11th and the first part of the
12th centuries. Even the apostles were married and so
was Saint Peter - the first Pope.

Today, the inability of the leadership of the church
to come to grips with a fast-changing society is
resulting in the collapse in the religious practice of
Catholics across all age ranges but particularly among
people from the youngest groups. This is vividly shown
by the statistics of Sunday Mass attendance over the
last decade and a half.
Posted by Foxy, Thursday, 12 July 2018 4:47:59 PM
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Robinson is right. The Catholic Church is in a prison of its own making and would look completely hypocritical if it changed. The way it fights back is by tempting all the superficial parents who want a cheap 'private' education for their kids over to their dark side. The brainwashing of children is the only way any organised religion survives, adults are less likely to believe the supernatural claptrap. They know these kids and their families pretend to be Catholic just to get in to their schools but are so desperate for bums on pews, they take them anyway. In return, the kids get compulsory religion until year 12. Because that's what we want our young people spending classroom time on in the 21st century!

The Catholic Church is also in demise because of how it treats women. You talk about celibacy, I ask what about female leadership? Churches need to reflect the society they work for otherwise they risk extinction. The Catholic Church has instead created misery and poverty for third world women in its shaming of contraception use. It really is the most abominable organisation, corrupt for centuries with deviant Popes, Bishops and priests alike, underhanded methods to get access to vulnerable third world populations, using its money and power to influence the politics of poor countries, shaming Aids afflicted Africans from using contraception (instead encouraging celibacy - ha! The hypocrisy) . The list of their crimes is long. No wonder so many of the Nuns were also responsible for brutality, being the dirt on the shoes of the men of the church.

The Catholic Church is just a non-progressive, irrelevant waste of space that needs to disappear as soon as possible. The human race has more important things to focus on than keeping an organisation of be-robed, backward men in a comfortable lifestyle.
Posted by Forwardplease, Thursday, 12 July 2018 5:11:43 PM
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Not all Roman Catholic priests are obliged to practice celibacy. Exceptions have been made for married Anglican priests who defected to the Catholic church. IIRC many defected when the Anglican church began ordaining women.
Posted by Aidan, Thursday, 12 July 2018 5:21:50 PM
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Dear FP,

Former priest Paul Collins would agree with most
of what you've posted. He wrote in his book, "Believers:
Does Australian Catholicism Have a Future?" in 2008
that:

"An example of the current church leadership in Australia...
To me the sum of the actions of Cardinal Pell are the antithesis
of Jesus. I am thinking of his treatment of gays. I am sure
that Jesus would have welcomed them into his company. As I see
it Pell was acting at the behest of the Vatican and is not
supported by the majority of Australian Catholics. Another example
was the vision of John Paul II refusing a priest (Father Fernando
Cardenal) in Nicaragua his blessing because he espoused Liberation
Theology. The change in the Pope's demeanour when he recognised
the priest was stark. He immediately went from the smiling, waving
celebrity, to the stern, lecturing autocrat. Well, to me those
guys in Latin America are the real Christians doing the hard
yards among the poor. The church is not God's church, it is the
church of ambitious and ruthless men."

Dear Aidan,

Many Catholics see an inconsistency and a lot of scandal in the
fact that Catholicism has accepted covert married clergy into
its ministry particularly from the Anglican and Lutheran
churches in Germany, England, the USA, and Canada.ordaining
them after only a cursory priestly, spiritual and theological
formation while, at the same time refusing to accept well-trained
theologically formed ministerially experienced Catholic priests
who have left the active ministry usually, but not always to
marry. It is also particularly galling when convert clergy
from other churches indulge in commentary on celibacy.
Posted by Foxy, Thursday, 12 July 2018 7:01:53 PM
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It looks like this discussion is not going to attract
too many new contributions so I'd like to Thank
everyone who's contributed to it. I feel that the
reality is that the role of priests increasingly
has to be seen more broadly within the context of
the whole ministry of the church. Short term solutions
such as the importation of foreign-born clergy
whether they are culturally sensitive or not, is simply
not the solution. The only real answer is facing up to
the question of the theology of ordained ministry and
asking - who can be ordained? The shortage of clergy -
and the creation of a much bigger pool of candidates
could be solved today. Because as far as I know there
seems to be no theological or doctrinal reason why the
church cannot ordain -
suitably qualified married men. It has nothing to do with
basic belief it's merely a church law that can be changed
today.
Posted by Foxy, Friday, 13 July 2018 6:12:06 PM
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