Fathers, Husbands and Rebels (Married Priests)

[leftchick]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/fathershusbandsandrebels;_ylt=AhFTYCgKKOYu7Aot.rSsqYtG2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

BOSTON — The priests came from three states, converging on a suburban park one Sunday to conduct an outdoor Mass. Wearing white vestments with rainbow-hued stoles, they led the worshippers in prayer and song. They stuck closely to traditional Roman Catholic liturgy.


But as they raised their arms in blessing, the five men revealed unmistakable proof of defiance: All wore wedding bands.

These men, who still consider themselves Roman Catholic priests, have wives, children — and unflinching commitments to their 2,000-year-old faith. As married priests, they say, they are not heretical anomalies but, instead, are following a model set by priests and popes in the earliest days of their church. They are part of a growing national network of thousands of deeply religious men who believe marriage does not compromise their ability to serve as spiritual ministers.

These married priests honor ordination as an irreversible sacrament, though the church no longer recognizes them as priests. They are solemnizing marriages — including second marriages and same-sex unions. They baptize babies. They officiate at funerals. They say Masses at healthcare facilities and private homes.

More and more rank-and-file Catholics, whose respect for church hierarchy was shattered by the clerical sex-abuse scandal, are accepting married priests and seeking their services.

[Inland]

1. Inside baseball.

Of course, there already ARE married RC priests, officially sanctioned. But bringing it up just shows what inside baseball the internal discipline of a christian church is.

Religion and Theology section might appreciate it.

[CatholicEdHead]

8. You can be married in a different denomination

convert, and still keep your family. There are a few exceptions in the RCC. There is no way to go there if you do not have the convert option.

[Inland]

9. Or you could simply join the other rites of the same Catholic church.

Whatever. Internal rules on who becomes priests isn't a general discussion topic, and best the moderator moves it here.

[craychek]

2. I'm torn about this one

I mean I understand why they can't get married, both theologically and logistically, but at the same time, I think it's a crime that they can bestow this sacrament onto others, but yet not beable to experience it for themselves. I think the bible says in multiple places that marriage is the shit(I'm not in the mood to quote right now)

[HockeyMom]

3. I think it is FINANCIAL

Too EXPENSIVE to have married priests with families. Just think all the CHILDREN (no birth control) the Church would have to support.

[MountainLaurel]

10. That's how it started

For centuries Catholic priests married/kept unofficial wives. The issue that got the Church on the bandwagon against it was that of inheritance fights once the priest died.

[atreides1]

5. Explain to me

Explain the theological part about not being able to marry, and why should it only apply to Catholics and not other Christian churches.

Is there something in the Bible that says that those who preach the word of God cannot be married? Or is is a ruling the Catholic church
made on its own?

[CatholicEdHead]

7. Inside church ruling

dating back to 1100. It was a church property rights issue then (don't want wife and kids to take church property, can get around that easily now with prenups).

Instead the standing line is that "Jesus was single", so any priest should then be single.

[Xipe Totec]

4. They are in excellent company

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla had the unique distinction of being a father in three senses of the word: a priestly father in the Roman Catholic Church, a biological father who produced illegitimate children in defiance of his clerical vows, and the father of his country. Though Guadalupe Victoria was, like Washington, his country's first president, Hidalgo was, like Washington, the man who launched a colonial independence struggle against a European mother country that had become excessively oppressive.

Hidalgo was born on the Corralejo hacienda near Pénjamo, Guanajuato, on May 8, 1753. His father, don Cristóbal, was of middle-class creole background and served as the hacienda's administrator. Sent to the Colegio San Nicolás in Valladolid, Hidalgo received his bachelor's degree in theology in 1773 and was ordained in 1778.

But he never took his priestly vows too seriously. He fathered two daughters out of wedlock, read the anti-clerical works of the French Encyclopedic philosophers and seemed to regard the Church as a sort of sinecure which would provide him with a regular income. Among classmates he was known el zorro, "the fox."



http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/history/jtuck/jthidalgo.html

[bliss_eternal]

6. How interesting! I wish more priests could marry--

I mean no disrespect to those that disagree. I just don't think I want to take counsel on MY MARRIAGE from a dude that has NO CLUE what I am really going through.

I agree with whoever said it is all based on money. The Catholic Church is trying to protect their money by barring priests from marriage.

Bottom line, it's just creepy and weird to force a man to live this way. Just my thoughts...

[existentialist]

11. married priests

It would of course be sane if Catholic priests could marry--but we expect sanity from the Roman Catholic Church?? Martin Luther too was a priest who, although he also had other disputes with the Church, wanted to marry, and he did.

It has been noted that in the absence of marriage by Catholic priests, and in the wake of the sex scandals rocking the Catholic Church, that,

"The Catholic Church is not the only religion that has had occasional difficulties with pedophiles in its clergy, but it is the only one that selects for them."