A family friend was the priest at a local church for years. He had been a priest for 20 years when he met a woman at his church that he felt a romantic connection with. They never kissed, had sex, etc. while he was a priest.
He left the priesthood because he loved the woman and eventually married her. He was excommunicated and the woman was shamed from the church and they left town to avoid the hostility.
Why would there be so much hate for this man? He swore an oath to God, but he also didn't want lust in his heart. I think what he did was honorable considering he didn't want to live a lie.
What do you think about this?
Should a priest who leaves the priesthood to marry be excommunicated and treated badly?
2007-01-16 09:36:17 · 19 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Priests should be allowed to marry and have children - there would be far fewer problems in the Catholic Church if they got rid of their practices from the Middle Ages.
2007-01-16 09:39:24 · answer #1 · answered by Richard K 2 · 8⤊ 0⤋
It is not a sin to leave the priesthood. It's a sin to break the vows of the priesthood. A priest is able to leave the priesthood any time he chooses. After that, he is free to marry within the Catholic church. Would he still be a priest? No. Would the Catholic church rather him be a priest? Of course. But he is free to leave and to marry at any time. AS LONG AS he leaves first then marries so he isn't breaking his vows of the priesthood. If he does that, he would be excommunicated, as there are many priests that have done that in an attempt to change the Catholic church's stance on allowing priests to marry, and they were excommunicated from the Catholic church. Priests can leave at any time though then marry.
2016-05-23 21:58:28 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I agree with you on this. I don't think he should be excommunicated. Just released from his vows. Hey, a man's a man. A priest is not above having feelings for a woman. He's a man, not God.
And I think that he did the right thing. Sorry to hear that he was excommunicated for "doing the right thing".
At one time, priests were like anyone else, they married and had children. It was the Roman Catholic Church who put the word "celebate" into use. And I think that this goes against nature.
2007-01-16 09:41:17 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No he should not be excommunicated... only one that should be excommunicated would be the one that blasphemed the Holy Spirit (the unforgivable sin)... if you know the Bible you will know that Peter was married, as well as the other disciples. It is better to marry if you can't control your sexual desires.
God is pleased with the man's decision to marry.
Not so sure God is pleased at the ways of how man twist God's Word to fit their own extraction from the Holy Word to make their doctrine and rules.
These so called elders etc... what did they do as teens and puberty set in? You can't tell me they didn't have sex with a girl... you can't tell me they are sin free. Jesus said, if you lust ... you sin. My hat off to this priest that left the hood to marry.
2007-01-16 09:46:09 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I knew a priest who left the priesthood and married a Buddhist lady. The last time I saw them, she was working as a teacher at the local catholoic school. There was no excommunication or villification.
2007-01-16 09:39:56 · answer #5 · answered by Nemesis 7 · 5⤊ 0⤋
You are right in saying that his action was honorable. It must have also been hard for him to leave his life as a priest. It is indeed wrong to treat him badly but then people usually set high standards for priests so that they take it so bad when a priest fails to measure up. They let their disappointment and outrage take the better of them and they cast the stone, forgetting the teaching of "let the one who has not sinned cast the first stone". It is sad but then that's one of the many twists of human proceedings.
2007-01-16 09:48:12 · answer #6 · answered by woman in the well 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I also know of a Priest who left the Church and got married and he now works in the Catholic school teaching we did not hate him or turn against him. Maybe the Church where you go was upset. Give them time they will learn to accept it
God Bless You
2007-01-16 09:44:16 · answer #7 · answered by ? 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1) I am assuming that he is Roman Catholic. I'm a married Priest.
2) Excommunicated? No. And that's not what happens. If he did it in the proper way, he merely renounces his Orders and becomes laisized by his Bishop, then gets married. No excommunication happens.
If it did happen, then there is something we are not being told here.
2007-01-16 09:40:59 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 0⤋
I worked for a guy who'd been a priest who married under similar circumstances and I think it's terrible, but then this comes from the same church whose "tribunal" refused a woman I know of personally, who was sexually and physically abused, an annulment from her abusive husband. It's just the nature of the religion.
_()_
2007-01-16 09:40:54 · answer #9 · answered by vinslave 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No way. Paul said it himself, if a man has lust, then he should get married. The priest was actually a good man, seeing that he was honest and did what he thought was best (and still obeying the rules while he was a priest).
2007-01-16 09:42:11 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋