"Temporary Prescription": Francis Downplays Celibacy

Sally Dorman shares this

194Mar 13, 2023

Pope opens up debate about married priesthood: “There is no contradiction for a priest to marry. Celibacy in the Western Church is a temporary prescription: I do not know if it is settled in one way or another, but it is temporary in this sense.”

Salvatore Bastatti

Mar 12, 2023

I, as a Priest, have written here that a true Priest (therefore exclude fatso the satanic corpulent) is in love with Christ and wishes no third party therefore (a woman) as part of his relationship with Christ. Celibacy, contrary to what the Vatican colon says says, is not a "discipline." But any true Priest already know that Period. End of discussion.
The question every day now is why has not …More

I, as a Priest, have written here that a true Priest (therefore exclude fatso the satanic corpulent) is in love with Christ and wishes no third party therefore (a woman) as part of his relationship with Christ. Celibacy, contrary to what the Vatican colon says says, is not a "discipline." But any true Priest already know that Period. End of discussion.

The question every day now is why has not Providence brought Bergoglio's life to the end it so richly deserves.

Adrien links to this post

Mar 11, 2023

aderito

3Mar 11, 2023

most priests that i know are in favor of celibacy .Married priests are not going to benefit the church quiet the contrary

en.news links to this post

Mar 11, 2023

Adrien

Mar 11, 2023

@Rand Miller @Dante Alighieri @pw @Urget Nos

Rand Miller

Mar 10, 2023

I'm sure Francis is aware of the revelation by St. Bridget about the punishment to be inflicted on the pope who allows priests to marry. It is too gruesome for words.

pw

Mar 10, 2023

You are correct in saying that celibacy is an apostolic tradition, NOT a temporary prescription. The pope is in error yet again. Pope Gregory the Great extended the law of celibacy for deacons, priests and bishops to the sub-diaconate (now abolished). In some instances eg Hilary of Poitiers, he was married and with a daughter before his conversion to Christianity. In such a case, after ordination,…More

You are correct in saying that celibacy is an apostolic tradition, NOT a temporary prescription. The pope is in error yet again. Pope Gregory the Great extended the law of celibacy for deacons, priests and bishops to the sub-diaconate (now abolished). In some instances eg Hilary of Poitiers, he was married and with a daughter before his conversion to Christianity. In such a case, after ordination, while married, celibate life was embraced.

Adrien

5Mar 10, 2023edited

Having non-married priests is not a simple (human) praiseworthy tradition or a mere discipline. Priests must be as close as possible to our Lord Jesus Christ's perfection.
God wants all His ministers to be chaste, completely pure, and holy. This is the Divine Will of the Eternal Father. Whether they are bishops, priests, deacons, acolytes etc. There is no exception, everything else is only the …More

Having non-married priests is not a simple (human) praiseworthy tradition or a mere discipline. Priests must be as close as possible to our Lord Jesus Christ's perfection.

God wants all His ministers to be chaste, completely pure, and holy. This is the Divine Will of the Eternal Father. Whether they are bishops, priests, deacons, acolytes etc. There is no exception, everything else is only the result of human errors and of the actions of Satan in the Church. Chastity is compulsory for priests and other ministers, all men or boys who must serve God near His altars in His sanctuaries (the space after the communion table up to the apse). To be chaste, one must, among other things, put oneself in a situation that is most conducive to chastity. To do this one must obviously not get married.

Therefore, upheavals of history can not be invoked to justify married clergy, and especially not eastern practices. In the east, they knew that bishops and priests should be chaste, but they wrongfully looked at the Mosaic Law and decided that priests should be chaste only one day a week, the day of the Sacrifice of the Mass, and then, the appropriate conduct of treating their wives as sisters was gone! To go from bad to worse, they began to say Holy Mass more often without new days of mandatory abstinence.

Even before God decreed the definitive and perfect covenant through the person of the Son of God. There was the imperfect covenant of preparation that announced the New Testament. In this ancient covenant, priests had to be temporarily chaste to serve God in His Temple. They had to abstain from all conjugal relationships and to live in a house without the presence of their wives. Priests of the Mosaic Law were not always active. There was a system of rotation, and their priestly function was not as sacred as in the New Testament's priesthood.

Pope Pius XII, Sacra Virginitas §23:

Consider again that sacred ministers do not renounce marriage solely on account of their apostolic ministry, but also by reason of their service at the altar. For, if even the priests of the Old Testament had to abstain from the use of marriage during the period of their service in the Temple, for fear of being declared impure by the Law just as other men, is it not much more fitting that the ministers of Jesus Christ, who offer every day the Eucharistic Sacrifice, possess perfect chastity? St. Peter Damian, exhorting priests to perfect continence, asks: "If Our Redeemer so loved the flower of unimpaired modesty that not only was He born from a virginal womb, but was also cared for by a virgin nurse even when He was still an infant crying in the cradle, by whom, I ask, does He wish His body to be handled now that He reigns, limitless, in heaven?"

@Urget Nos @John A Cassani @Orthocat

rhemes1582

4Mar 10, 2023

John A Cassani

2Mar 10, 2023

If married priests come to be allowed in general, but a celibate episcopate is maintained, it will ensure that most bishops will be homosexuals. It may not be much different from how it is now, but everyone will know.

Orthocat

Mar 10, 2023

Plus... don't forget that many like James Martin S.J. consider gays as able to enter into same-sex "marriage" So ...

Urget Nos

Mar 10, 2023edited

Celibacy in the West is a valued and lauded tradition that should be maintained.
But we need to be careful with accurately understanding the position of celibacy in the Byzantine, Syriac, Alexandrian, Armenian, and Indian (Malabar/Malankara) heritage coming down from the Apostles.
St. Paul recommended celibacy, but did not mandate it. That is in the Bible, but we have a living body of Tradition to …More

Celibacy in the West is a valued and lauded tradition that should be maintained.

But we need to be careful with accurately understanding the position of celibacy in the Byzantine, Syriac, Alexandrian, Armenian, and Indian (Malabar/Malankara) heritage coming down from the Apostles.

St. Paul recommended celibacy, but did not mandate it. That is in the Bible, but we have a living body of Tradition to draw from in our understanding as well.

The Byzantine East has always had both married and celibate clergy.

The matter was not settled on the side of celibacy in the early Church.

See the canons of the Synod of Elvira Spain (ca. 300 A.D. which is a Synod of the Western Church) especially Canon 33 'Bishops and ministers to abstain from relations with their wives.' and Canon 65: 'The adulterous wife of a cleric'.

{And understand that the Synod of Elvira also contains some pretty lousy theology, like: Canon 50 "If any of the clergy or the faithful eats with Jews, he shall be kept from communion. . ."}

See also the records of the proceedings of the Council of Nicea where the aged, one-eyed, white-martyr St. Paphnutius of Thebes urged his fellow bishops to not add clerical celibacy to the agenda of the Council and to leave the ancient tradition of the Church in place - those married before ordination to remain in the married state and those who were celibate before ordination were to remain celibate.

And be careful too when saying "celibacy goes back to the apostles and reflects the divine will of Christ." If we study history well and realize that there has always been a married priesthood along side celibacy, then if we reject the possibility of married clergy, we would teeter on the edge of a heresy by calling conjugal marriage a filthy thing (which it is not).

Again the tradition of exclusively celibate clergy in the West is a beautiful and laudable discipline and a ministry of availability. But it is important to accurately characterize the historical (and current) practice of the Eastern lung of the Church. And mind you, no one in the Eastern Church is trying to get the Western Church to change her position on celibacy.

To the first line of the article and the words of the pope - that there has never been (East or West) a situation of priests marrying AFTER ordination as the above article seems to be saying, "[Pope Francis:] There is no contradiction for a priest to marry” - yes - priests marrying would be a contradiction of all ecclesial discipline for 2,000 years.

brhenry

Mar 10, 2023

The issue is not "married priests" as were most of the Apostles. The issue is "perfectly chaste priests." The Apostles "left wife" (the marriage bed) in order to follow Our LORD. There had not been "conjugal" priests(or deacons) in the West until modern times and it was a later innovation as well in the East.

GaryLockhart

Mar 10, 2023edited

'And be careful too when saying "celibacy goes back to the apostles and reflects the divine will of Christ."'(sic) Urget Nos
You would be well advised to obtain and deliberately read Cochini's "The Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy".More

'And be careful too when saying "celibacy goes back to the apostles and reflects the divine will of Christ."'(sic) Urget Nos

You would be well advised to obtain and deliberately read Cochini's "The Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy".

GaryLockhart

Mar 10, 2023

'The issue is not "married priests" as were most of the Apostles.'(sic) brhenry
Assumes facts not in evidence. Scripture only definitively indicates that Simon Bar-Jonah was married at one time. If memory serves correct William Jurgens in Volume 3 of "The Faith of the Early Fathers" wrote that his research could only find that other than Peter, Philip was the only one who had been married.More

'The issue is not "married priests" as were most of the Apostles.'(sic) brhenry

Assumes facts not in evidence. Scripture only definitively indicates that Simon Bar-Jonah was married at one time. If memory serves correct William Jurgens in Volume 3 of "The Faith of the Early Fathers" wrote that his research could only find that other than Peter, Philip was the only one who had been married.

brhenry

Mar 12, 2023

GaryLockhart I will have to do some research, but I remember reading that only St. John was a "virgin," which is why he was the "Beloved Disciple" who had the singular privilege of leaning on Our LORD's breast at the Last Supper as well as the only Apostle not "blood martyred," as his martyrdom was the beautiful "white martyrdom" of Holy Virginity.