Should priests be allowed to marry?

[n2mark]

Ok, this could tie into my Jesuit post... Think before you answer and read my previous post.

[fluffernutter]

1. yes, i believe they should.

[Nikepallas]

2. Yes, they should. Priest and especially bishops married until about 1200

A.D. when the Pope said no more because when a priest or Bishop died the wife and children would get any wealth (and believe it back in the days their were wealthy priests and bishops) they would get it. If the priest/bishop was not tie to a family guess who got the money... YEP Vatican did,

[CatholicEdHead]

14. Yep

and women were priests in the first 500 so years.

[n2mark]

15. Interesting

I did not know this.

[ohioliberal]

3. Yes I think they should too

Maybe it would stop the problems they have with the children.

[serryjw]

8. Now that is truly a ridiculous statement

n/t

[n2mark]

16. Why was that a ridiculous statement?

[NashVegas]

22. I'll Tell You Why It's a Ridiculous Statement

Pedophiles manipulate and control (usually) one person at a time to get their jollies off.

People who use the tragedy to promote a social agenda are attempting to manipulate and control thousands -> millions at a time. For what purpose I don't know. But I find it equally exploitative.

Allowing priests to marry isn't going to fix the problem.
Kicking out all the queers isn't going to fix the problem.
Allowing openly gay priests is not going to fix the problem.

[serryjw]

23. Not being able to marry......

has nothing to do with being a pedephile. Many priests have long term girlfriends (or boyfriends)

[JohnKleeb]

26. right and many pedophiles are often married people

[NashVegas]

17. Won't Stop a Damn Thing

..

[unblock]

4. hell no. why should gays be the only ones who can't marry?

in fact, since the only real point of marriage is naturally born children, marriage should start from the moment of conception.

[efhmc]

5. As a feminist, I think that priests are an antiquated, hateful idea from

medieval time and have nothing to do with Christ's concept of this world.

[deadparrot]

6. Yes.

Personally, I don't think Jesus would care whether they were married or not, as long as they did their jobs effectively and to the best of their ability.

But I've rejected Catholicism, and it wouldn't be up to me anyway.

[n2mark]

20. Agree

I do agree with you, Jesus would care whether they we e married or not. All his followers just needed to teach.

[Verve]

7. Yes, priests and nuns should marry, How do we know Jesus wasn't married?

Anyone read the Da Vinci Code?

[serryjw]

11. Nikepallas is correct.....

this has nothing to do with being celibate, but rather about money and how the Church keeps all it's wealth

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. In the old days, every family was expected to "give" a son to the

priesthood, and besides, the priesthood was a means of upward mobility for the sons of poor families, just as becoming a nun was the only respectable way for a Catholic girl to remain unmarried.

I agree that the celibacy requirement is a source of trouble. In today's world, when there's little family pressure to become a priest and men from poor families have other routes of upward mobility, who would agree to celibacy (which is generally understood to mean refraining from sex with women)? Mostly men who aren't interested in sex with grown women anyway.

Now if a gay man goes into the priesthood and finds another adult to have a relationship with, that's not a problem, other than the church being embarrassed if the relationship becomes public knowledge. But if a man is willing to give up relationships with women because he's not interested in sex with any adult, only with children, that's a problem.

The Catholic church in North America and Europe is facing a severe shortage of priests, while the Protestant churches, which not only allow married clergy and have done so since the Reformation, but also ordain women in many cases, have a surplus of clergy.

[JVS]

10. That decision is up to the authorities within the Church

[Nothing Without Hope]

12. Of course they should be "allowed" to marry.

The monolithic patriarchal power structure that was built and codified so long after Jesus lived shouldn't have the right to ban marriage, in my opinion. And in the long years of my parochial education, I never once heard a believable reason given for this destructive rule. Nor for the ban on female priests, nor for a long list of other "that's just the way it is" things we were expected to accept without question.

[roguevalley]

13. sure. property inheritance rights are no longer an issue here.

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. Definitely yes

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. Definitely yes

[Mabeline]

21. Ministers in other faiths do

so why not Catholics. I'm not a Catholic, so my oppinion doesn't add to much but I think they should be allowed, even if it's a nun.

[arwalden]

24. Anyone Should Be Allowed To Marry Whomever They Please...

this is very simple.

[Amaya]

25. Yes

And yes

[HuskiesHowls]

27. Historically, it was decided in the early Councils

Pope Calixtus (ca 217-222 AD) http://www.cfpeople.org/Books/Pope/POPEp16.htm decided that priests should not marry.

For that priests ought never to marry Aurelius testifys in the second Council of Carthage, where he says: "Because the apostles taught thus by example, and antiquity itself has preserved it, let us also maintain it."
http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/concord/web/conf-23.html

However, times have changed!!! The world has changed, and I feel it is time that the canons are changed.
Priests should be allowed to marry.

[democracyindanger]

30. But you know the real reason?

If priests married, the Catholic Church would lose property when they died to the priests heirs.

Less to do with emulating the apostles than it is about greed.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

32. Conveniently forgetting that the Apostle Peter had

a mother-in-law, which strongly implies that he had a wife. :-)

[Skittles]

28. yes, and be gay too

yes INDEED

[njdemocrat106]

29. This Catholic says "Yes"

I'm just plain "pro-marriage", be it straight or gay.

[Historic NY]

31. Wouldn't bother me........then again were not the apostles married.

We've had corrupt married Popes, women priests, and even today those priests from faiths that allow it are allowed to keep their wives. What the big deal is I do not know.