What is your view on priestly celibacy

I agree with the Church. If it was good enough for Jesus and St. Paul (and priests and saints for the past 2,000 years), then it's good enough for me.

 

St. Paul said the celibate life was a higher state. Jesus said some would become eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven. Celibacy is a gift.

Even the Orthodox, which allows ordaining priests who are married (though all Apostolic Churches forbid a priest from marrying once he is a priest), only select bishops from among the celibate. The Church has always viewed celibacy as a good for the church. Also, think of the many cloistered and celibate monks and nuns who spend each day praying for us. What a great gift!

 

Why is it too much of a burden? If priests weren’t celibate that means they’d have a wife and children. It would make it harder for a priest to devote his time to the Church. It might also mean the wife and kids get less attention than they deserve. I’ve known quite a few Protestant PKs (preacher’s kids) and it can be tough on them. They are under a magnifying glass.

 

I don’t have a lot of experience with the Orthodox. But, what countries are you talking about or what is your experience? I ask because since we are writing in English I’ll assume you mean in an English speaking country. Orthodox Churches in the English speaking world are more immigrant Churches. For instance, I have a friend who is Greek and of course Orthodox. He and other’s at his church cling tightly to their Greek identity. And they have a much tighter social bond. This is great and I admire them. This does indeed help to keep people, especially kids, on the straight track. But the Catholic Church doesn’t have this as much outside of the Hispanics in the US.

Who are we? Exactly. It isn’t our decision. It is Holy Mother Church’s. She decides what the requirements for priesthood are. The way of Jesus and St. Paul are perfectly valid.

The Catholic Church has the same position regarding good care of family. There are two issues. Sometimes the church’s judgment in such matters is wrong and sometimes men or conditions change for the worse.

The priest actually has experience of marriage through encounters with people in the confessional. If you’ve never read G. K. Chesterton’s ‘Father Brown’ stories then I recommend them. The movie and TV adaptations aren’t as faithful to the point. But the point was that Fr. Brown was an expert in people from what he heard in the confessional. He didn’t need to experience these things to understand them. He saw people’s bare souls.

 

St. Paul said that it is better to not marry. St. Paul was not a gnostic.

Bad things have been done in all churches.

Jesus says anyone who isn’t willing to give up everything to follow Him is unworthy. Priestly vocations are strong in diocese where orthodoxy is maintained.

 

That isn’t right. Catholic teaching is that you can’t thwart reproduction while engaging in sex. There isn’t any teaching that sex can’t be for pleasure.

 

We catholics can have daily mass because the priests are celibate, married priests are ritually unclean after having sex.

Than being said, priestly and religious life vocations are not dwindling because men are not allowed to marry, but because the liturgy and the religion has been feminized after VII, you just need to check parishes where altar girls and legions of eucharistic ministers exist and those who follow more traditional practices. We all know that when women start to get involved in an activity exclusive to males, the latter stop attending those activities, this of course includes being an altar boy. 80% of altar boys become priests, you know how many girls become priests? 0%

I might say that allowing girls to serve the altar is actually insulting to them since they never will be able to become priests nor helps them to discern religious life since the activities are completely different. Allowing married priests will help nothing to the present crisis, it will put a bandaid in a gaping wound.

One more thing, this by no means is doctrine nor belongs to the deposit of faith you can take it as you want:

St. Bridget of Sweden:

“But now I shall tell you God’s will in this matter……
Know this too: that if some pope concedes to priests a license to contract carnal marriage, God will condemn him to a sentence as great, in a spiritual way, as that which the law justly inflicts in a corporeal way on a man who has transgressed so gravely that he must have his eyes gouged out, his tongue and lips, nose and ears cut off, his hands and feet amputated, all his body’s blood spilled out to grow completely cold, and finally, his whole bloodless corpse cast out to be devoured by dogs and other wild beasts. Similar things would truly happen in a spiritual way to that pope who were to go against the aforementioned preordinance and will of God and concede to priests such a license to contract marriage.

For that same pope would be totally deprived by God of his spiritual sight and hearing, and of his spiritual words and deeds. All his spiritual wisdom would grow completely cold; and finally, after his death, his soul would be cast out to be tortured eternally in hell so that there it might become the food of demons everlastingly and without end.”

 

Great read here http://www.crisismagazine.com/2017/reasons-support-celibate-priesthood

 

I was told somewhere the "discipline" of remaining celibate had to do with nepotism in the Roman curia. Popes making there son's cardinals and their extended family bishops who elected their dad/grandad as Pope and assigned dioceses to each other to hold power in cities in the papal state etc. Not having children or families eliminated this conflict of interest.

 

A quick point of interest... not all Catholic priests are required to be celibate.

Many people don't realize this, but the Catholic Church (united with Pope Francis) is comprised of multiple Ritual Churches. The Latin Church (known commonly as the Roman Catholic Church) is the largest, but there are 23 other Churches known as Eastern Catholic Churches. They are fully Catholic, and have the same Pope as the Roman Catholics.

In most of the Eastern Catholic Churches, married priests are the norm. However, the priests must be married prior to ordination. There are many celibate Eastern Catholic priests, too, but they choose to be celibate. The bishops are always chosen from among the celibate priests.

I'm not saying that this tradition is better than the Roman Catholic tradition. There are pros and cons with both approaches. However, it is important to be aware that mandatory clerical celibacy is not a universal discipline within the Catholic Church. There are literally thousands of married Catholic priests, and they are just as Catholic as the celibate Roman Catholic priests.

You can learn more about the Eastern Catholic Churches here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Catholic_Churches

 

@Vince T, we actually have one in our diocese. He converted from the Anglican Church where he was married. He's even the Roman Rite, so even that is not strictly nessecary.

 

I live in "flyover country". My parish priest is married with children. He was an Anglican priest and converted to Catholicism. As a married adult with a child of my own I find that I can really relate to him when I go to confession. On the other hand, there are practical problems. He is raising a family and it takes money to do that.

 

Celibacy isn't easy, but what crosses are easy? Do you think married men have less of a burden because of the martial act? I've met many priests who love celibacy and who do not envy married men nor do they view sex as being beneficial to their vocation.

Lets not forget, Christ chose married men because that was what was available to him according to the culture. Note that none of those men continued with their daily married lives after their calling. In fact we can be sure their wives were left when the Apostles answered their calling:

"And Peter began to say unto him: Behold, we have left all things, and have followed thee"--Mark 10:28.

Even in the Eastern Rite priest who are married, had to be so before ordination, and that by being married they cannot be Bishops.

Celibacy is a calling to further imitate Him who is the High Priest of our souls. These men are called to be Christs among us; the same Christ who had nowhere to lay His head.

Keep in mind a parish priest's family becomes the souls in their parish, and as such they cannot have a conflict between their parish children and biological children if they were permitted to be married. Knowing this, how is celibacy harder? It's not. In fact it is a great gift to not have that conflict during their priesthood.

As Catholics we need to stop viewing celibacy as a punishment when it's one of the biggest benefits to priests and their vocation.

 

My parish priest is married and has three children. One of their children is an altar server. His wife is a Eucharistic Minister. He converted from Anglicanism. IMHO there are advantages and disadvantages. I enjoy having him hear my confessions. I feel that he has a greater understanding of the challenges that I face as a husband and father.

 

I understand you feel this way, but the reality is the men who are priests, and who are not married, are just as capable of aiding you in your spiritual needs and understanding your position. Priests are fathers regardless of marriage/sex and they understand what it's like to raise children and a family. As father you likewise can understand the position of a priest while not being one in Holy Orders, since your house is your church. You are a priest of your home. Your family is your parish. Their spiritual wellbeing is your responsibility. The only difference is yours are children from biology, while his are children from the spirit. This, in a good priest, will not be seen as a less than connection in relationship to his children/parish.