Roman Catholics & Mary?

Question

Why does the roman catholic church stand in aw of mary, but say preiests an nuns shouldnt marry? mary was married and had kids... and if she was an amazing person why not follow her example?
perhaps there would not be so many scandels in the roman catrholic church if the prirests could marry....

Just talking bout the roman catholic church here.. not catholic( which is the chrsitian chruch in general) and it says she got married to joseph.. so..... um....

1 timothy 5:14
I will therefore that the yunger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the advisary to speak repraochfully.

In amthew it says jseph knew not his wife married till she had deliveered jesus. so i thin kwe can conclude that she was not a virgin her whole life.
also,
I am a christian, i am a communicat member in the OPC.
I believe there are problems in the roman catholic church, that it is apostate, but that there is enough truth there to be saved.

Answer 1

+ The Blessed Virgin Mary +

The Blessed Virgin Mary is important to Catholics because the Bible says she is important to God.

+ Mary is the handmaid of the Lord (Luke 1:38), a servant of God just like us.

+ Mary is the first Christian. All other Christians follow her on the road of faith. She is the model for all of us because she actively cooperated with the Will of God by saying "Yes" to God in the plan of salvation.

+ Mary is the model of faith. Mary's faith never wavered throughout Jesus' life, even while watching him die on the cross when most of the Apostles ran away.

+ Mary is full of grace. The angel Gabriel called her, "Full of grace" and said, "The Lord is with you." She is full of grace at that moment; the Lord is with her at that moment, before she says "yes" to the angel's question. Catholics believe the state of grace was with her since her Immaculate Conception. God prepared her for her later role as the mother of Jesus.

+ Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ, of God the Son.

+ Mary is a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, a tabernacle. The angel Gabriel says to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow." (Luke 1:35)

+ God praised Mary through His messenger, the angel Gabriel, "Rejoice, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you." If God and his angels praise Mary, shouldn't we?

+ Jesus honored Mary. Jesus kept the Commandments and did not sin. Jesus fulfilled the Commandment to honor both his father and his mother. WWJD? What would Jesus do? Jesus would and did honor Mary, his mother.

+ The Holy Spirit inspired praises of Mary. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women," and "Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled." (Luke 1:41-45)

+ The Scriptures tell of Mary's place with Jesus. Mary gives birth to Jesus, presents him to the shepherds, to the wise men, to God in the Temple. She lived with him for many years in Nazareth, intercedes with Jesus in Cana, suffers with him at the foot of the Cross, and prays to him with the apostles in the Upper Room.

+ Mary was a prophet. "Behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me." (Luke 48-49) As Christians who believe the Bible, we must call Mary "blessed."

+ Mary is our Mother too. While he was on the Cross, Jesus said to his beloved disciple (who represents all Christians), "this is your mother." (John 19:27)

The Blessed Virgin Mary is not a goddess but the blessed daughter of God the Father, mother of God the Son, and dwelling place of God the Holy Spirit.

The Hail Mary prayer simply recites Bible passages (the Word of God) and asks Mary to pray for us:

Hail Mary Full of grace, the Lord is with you. (These are the words the angel Gabriel said to Mary, a Bible quote.)

Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. (This is Mary's cousin Elizabeth's greeting, another bible quote.)

Holy Mary, (The angel Gabriel said she was full of grace and Elizabeth said she was blessed.)

Mother of God, (the Bible says Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ, God the Son)

Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. (A simple request to pray for us.)

Amen.

+ The Celibate Clergy +

The celibate clergy did not come into full bloom until about 1000 A.D. There were many married priests, bishops, and popes before this time.

This idea of a celibate clergy came from the Jews, John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Apostle Paul.

The Jews. The Talmud argues that a person whose “soul is bound up with the Torah and is constantly occupied with it” may remain celibate (Maimonides, Laws of Marriage 15.3). For example, Yahweh ordered the prophet Jeremiah not to marry (Jeremiah 16:1-4). Moreover, the Essenes was a group that was active in Jesus’ time that practiced celibacy and thought by most scholars to be the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

WWJD? What would Jesus do? Jesus did not marry.

John the Baptist and Jesus are both believed to have been celibate for their entire lives. Some scholars believe that the example of the Essenes influenced either or both Jesus and John the Baptist in their celibacy.

The Apostle Paul is explicit about his celibacy (see 1 Cor. 7). There is also evidence in the gospel of Matthew for the practice of celibacy among at least some early Christians, in the famous passage about becoming “eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:12).

The concept took many twists and turns over the years and will probably take a few more before Christ returns in glory.

A priest is "married" to the Church. Some people think that a priest who takes his duties seriously cannot take proper care of a wife and family. "A man cannot serve two masters."

+ With love in Christ.

Answer 2

You are commiting a logical fallacy by applying individual characteristics to a larger category. It doesn't matter if a Roman Catholic in Pago Pago steals apples - that doesn't mean that all Roman Catholics steal apples. People get angry when they explain their beliefs to you, and then you say, "No, you're lying - I know you worship Mary because I saw a guy in Mexico worship Mary." There are over 3 times more Roman Catholics in the world than the entire population of the United States. The odds are that you are going to find every possible belief and practice represented somewhere at some time. By the way, I am not a Roman Catholic.

Answer 3

Wow... you definitely know nothing about the Catholic faith!
Ok, Catholics call Mary, the Virgin Mary, therefore, we believe she did not have more kids than Jesus (you may agree or not, but that is what the Catholic faith says). She was married, yes of course. And the majority of the catholics follow her example, and they marry. The majority of catholics are not priests.
Does that has any relationship with the celibacy of priests?. Not at all. Actually, there are catholic priests who, for special reasons are married, like those of the Eastern catholic rite (Coptic, and melquites), and the ex-Anglican who converted into Catholicism but were married before. Why, then, the priests of the western rite cannot marry? Well, that is a bit a tradition, which was established centuries ago, and could be perfectly revised. In fact, at the very beginning of the roman catholic church, the priests used to get marry, but it was kind of a disaster (you know, they were Romans still anyways). So they established the celibacy.
According to the tradition, by being celibate the priests, not only are more available to accomplish his duties (which in fact is totally right), but also remind their flock that in heaven we will not be marry to our husband and wife, but to the Holly Church (and I do not mean by that only the Roman Catholic, but that is another discussion).
The scandals have nothing to do with the possibilities of priests to get marry. In fact, many married men commit exactly the same acts.

OH BY THE WAY DOWN HERE!!! MARY IS NOT A CO-REDEEMER... that idea has been refused by the Catholic Church in Rome since John Paul II. There are groups among the Catholic Church who claim that, which have been told off by Rome.

The problem really is that there is a lot of misinformation among Roman Catholics, and obviously outside the Church. Mary is well cherished among catholics as mother of Jesus and our Mother, but the history of salvation would not be affected if the marian dogmas were not there.

Answer 4

In 431AD The Council of Ephesus originate the term "Mother of God". This advance direct prayer to HIS Earthly mother!

In 1090 The Rosary was Invented. (Three times the length it is today.)

On September 30, 1852 Poop Pius the 9th granted 300 days Indulgence to each person who repeated the mantra " Sweet heart of Mary be my salvation." (That's 300 days of Purgatory, as if there really was such a place.)

The Cult of Mary has been growing ever since.
She is now considered The Co Redeemer - along with Jesus.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Priests were forbidden to marry in the year 1079 AD.
This allows more free movement, and transfer, of staff as well as removes the cost of transferring families around Countries.

The above alone far outbalances the high cost of litigation, pay offs, and settlement of lost law suits.

Until recently children almost never "squealed" on the clergy. A beating at home for lying was usually the response!

Answer 5

Thank you! I was raised Roman Catholic and it wasn't until a year ago that I started thinking about all the issues I had with my religion. You know it wasn't the Catholic church that said that the priests and nuns could not marry, it was King Henry who so ordered it. So why are we still hanging on to this silly notion, it wasn't deemed by Jesus or God but a king. Hello? If they could marry you wouldn't see nearly as many scandles in regards to children as you do now, if any. I always had problems with th VIRGIN mary as well, is that even possible? About a year ago I watched the movie Kingdom of Heaven over and over again. I couldn't stop watching it and suddenly it hit me, my religion does not lie in a church or cathedral, it lies within me. It was then that I decided that there were things about my religion that I would continue to follow, such as the 10 commandments, but others I would choose not to believe.

Answer 6

Your theory assumes that the ONLY reason there are scandals in the Church is because priests and nuns can't marry.

By this standard, ALL people who remain unmarried for any length of time will become every bit as scandalous as some priests have become.

Since this is most obviously not true, I have a hard time believing allowing priests and nuns to marry will solve the problem.

Answer 7

Because in the bible, in Paul I THINK...it says that people should EITHER marry and procreate, or devote their whole life to God. You can't do both. (Catholic church's interpretation),

Just an add on..Mary and Joseph had children other than Jesus, after Jesus' birth. Matthew 13:54-56, "And when He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, "Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?

Answer 8

I agree that priests and nuns should be able to marry. The Catholic Church has difficulty "getting with the times" so to speak.

I think that the reasoning behind it is so that the priests and nuns love Jesus above all others. In essence, they are "married" to the church. That way they put their faith above everything else. That's the reasoning I've heard anyway.

Answer 9

This is why Mary became a focus point in the Catholic Church.

The whole concept of the ''holiness'' of Mary began in Ephesus. The church could not get the people to convert, as they had too much love for their goddess, Diana. Mary had seldom been mentioned in the Bible. The church decided to make Mary with goddess attributes, and slowly move her in, and Diana out, so people would convert. It work-with time they converted.

Answer 10

Contrary to popular belief, the Catholic Church DOES have some married priests. However, the Catholic Church wants other priests who are unmarried, because as St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 7:32-34, "The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided." Thus, the Church selects some men for ordination from among those who choose to be "eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven", as Jesus said in Matthew 19:12.

St. Paul also wrote, "the unmarried woman or girl is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please her husband." (1 Corinthians 7: 34). Sisters (nuns are sisters that are cloistered) are women who CHOOSE to renounce marriage so they are free to devote their lives to completely serving the Lord.

Marriage does not prevent child-molestation. Child molesters are actually MORE likely to be likely to be either married or formerly married than the average American man (77% v. 73%).

Answer 11

This is a well debated topic, actually priests were allowed to marry until about 300 years ago, back then they decided to commit to God above all. Even the apostles were married.