I am suggesting the following article: "Why the Church must continue to uphold priestly celibacy" by Fr. Pat Stratford.As someone that is planning on embarking on that journey leading me to ordination, I can not publicly support mandatory priestly celebacy enough. Priestly celebacy is a necessary component of serving God completely. If a priest were allowed to marry, he would have a family and a parish - two vocations. The result would be that one would be primarily focused on, thereby neglecting the other. Celebacy is not meant to be easy, but it is meant to be a sacrifice endured for the greater glory of the Kingdom of Christ.
3 comment(s):
With respect, I worry that the requirement of celibacy causes the "parochial" character of public ministry to be confused with the "religious." Both are priestly, both are essential to the life of the Church. In my opinion, though, once the position of celibacy among Catholic clergy was assured, and if the bishops were required to remain celibate, there would be little reason to maintain celibacy among the parochi.
I wonder, given the number of vocations to the priesthood, if this arrangement would not save consecrated life. If not, then we have to give pause to the nature of the call to celibacy, and how well it is being promoted in our church.
Oh, you are so on my blogroll!
Speaking as a woman, the requirement for celibacy makes both theological and practical sense. I would not want to be married to a priest; he would be too divided. He is already married to his parish.
I have a friend who is a Protestant Pastor, but left full-time ministry because of the conflict; he had to choose between his family or his ministry. When he took stock of his situation, he realized his primary Vocation was to his family.
Personally, I would not want to be the "other woman" because the priest would HAVE to be available to serve the needs of the parish.
Then there are the financial concerns; how would the priest's family be supported? Etc etc. You've likely both heard and made all the arguments, although not from the perspective of a woman! LOL
God bless you.
This argument that the Priest would have two vocations is one that I heartily agree with. It would be, in most cases, wrong! ;-)
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