My question is a 5 parter about the catholic church, early church, bible and priests?

Question

1. why can't priests marry? I know that there are married priests but they usually were married before they became catholic priests right?
2. Why does the catholic church have all of the rituals from communion to confession to rosary beads etc? Jesus did not wear all of the garments that catholic preists wear nor did he and the disciples have such elaborate rituals.
3. It seems to me from my limited knowledge of the bible and history that the early church was very much meetings in houses and praying together etc. Isn't that enough for god? why add more to it?
4. I realize that catholic means universal and that the catholic or even the roman catholic church was the first church basically but all of the laws, rituals, sacriments and everything was made by man not god or jesus. (I'm generalizing a bit but you know what I mean.)
5. Can a man alone pray to god not jesus and still find god? why not cut out the middle man?

I sound opinionated but my questions are serious.

Answer 1

It will take some time to answer all of these questions but I will try to give brief explanations.

1. Some priests swear a vow of celibacy which has become a discipline following the example of St. Paul and Jesus. Celibacy has been a choice of men called to the ministry since the beginning of the Church and has been a respected discipline for one to follow. I am a married priest and it is not a discipline among many of the Catholic rites but is particular to the Latin Rite Catholics.

2. Communion was started at the last supper when Jesus ordered that we practice communion after His teaching at the Synagogue at Capernaum. He said that if one does not eat of His Body and drink His Blood then there is no life in them referring to eternal life. This is a commandment of our Lord that is a free gift of grace and is not an optional belief or practice for the faithful according to Jesus, recorded in Scriptures. Scriptures also teach that we are to confess our sins and gives the authority to receive these confessions to the Church in which the priest acts in person Christi. Rosary beads are a tool to focus one on the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross reflecting on Christ’s passion and suffering. The garments of the priest are worn for particular reasons. Many times they are worn to focus the priests on the acts which they perform for our Lord in behalf of acting persona Christi delivering the means of Grace of our Lord. There are purposes to the dress but specifically to remind the congregants of the role of servant of the priests to the people. The Liturgy or “rituals” are presented so that the worship of our Lord and the presence of our Lord will be without error and with the proper reverence that being in the actual, real corporeal presence of our Lord.

3. I am not sure what you mean by this question but I believe that we should not ask how little we can do to satisfy God but how much we can do to serve him instead.

4. You are incorrect. Everything the Church does was on the instruction of Jesus and the apostles. There are no laws, rituals etc. that are not based on the Scriptures and Sacred Tradition which is the teaching of our Lord.

5. Jesus is God in the Trinitarian understanding. There is no middle man when praying to god.

In Christ
Fr. Joseph

Answer 2

It is something about the believe that if they are not married they will have greater devotion to God. Same with the Nuns, they were 'married' to God, so they couldn't marry another guy. The married priests are normally married before becoming a priest, you are right.

Tradition is a good word to sum it up. This faith has been around for YEARS so there has been plenty of time for people to come up with many traditions. Confession was used a lot because people feared that if they didn't they would go to Hell. The Rosary I think was somehow given to us by Mary (in an appearance or something like that). Time changes things; remember that a lot has changed since Jesus' time.

God was happy when all Christian were there for each other and prayed together. Now one Christian can be near death in a gutter and another Christian can be sitting down in a large warm house with a full stomach. God wants us to care for each other yet we are too self centered most of the time.

I know what you mean, and I feel the same way. I only think we need to do as Jesus did, and how he lived. He lived on the road sleeping where he was offered a bed, and He healed those who needed it. We change things so we can try to make sence of it. Somewhere in history people thought all those rituals was what God wanted when all God wants is us to get along and stop killing one another.

I think anyone can find God. God was there before Jesus was, Jesus was just there to give us a wake up call, and to change a few things. Personally I am fine with a middleman, but not everyone needs to use the middleman, especially when they can get straight to God.

I hope I answered all your questions. Feel free to e-mail me if you want to discuss more.

Answer 3

I am not a theologian, but will do my best here.
1.Priests take the vow of celibacy and cannot marry. They were not married before they became priests.
2.The rituals of the Catholic religion haven't changed since Jesus founded the Catholic Church. The have been embellished and the garments came about so you could differentiate between the priest and the congregation, I believe.
3.Yes, you are correct about that. I don't believe that Jesus intended us to have places of worship, but that is my belief.
4.The laws, rituals, sacraments were given by God to the apostles to dispense as His followers and teachers.
5. When you pray to God, that includes the Holy Trinity...God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

The thing to remember is that Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church. He founded ONE church, not the protestant churches that formed afterwards. If you look at a timeline of Christian religions, you will see that most of them are fairly new. One thing that everyone, no matter if they are Jewish, Mormon or Hindu, will agree about is that Jesus founded the Catholic Church. When you realize that, there should be no question about which path you should be following.There is no question and y ou can check that out in Google or Yahoo or anywhere else. It is a verified historical fact. I personally am not willing to question that and risk my eternal salvation.

Answer 4

In addition to the other posters: The Old Testament, The Septuagint [translated from Hebrew to Greek somewhere 250 BC] was in placed at that time, used even before Jesus' time. The New Testament was written 35-100 AD and translated to latin by St Jerome, sometimes 400 AD. It is still on parchments and read in the church, or preached orally. So, there IS NO NEW TESTAMENTS IN A BOOK/BIBLE FORM AT THAT TIME compiled with Septuagint.' Bible alone' theory is not in existence at that time as there is NO BOOK to call bible. It was the use of Oral Tradition up until 1400 when the 'compiled book form bible' finally hit the printing press. In other words, it took the Catholic Church about 400 years of gathering, editing, and sorting the ancient manuscripts and got printed in 1400. There were also a lot of uninspired writings [apocryphal books] that were floating around that were not cannonized.

Answer 5

The idea that all revealed truth is to be found in "66 books" is not only not in Scripture, it is contradicted by Scripture (1 Corinthians 11:2, 2 Thessalonians 2:15, 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 1 Timothy 3:15, 2 Peter 1:20-21, 2 Peter 3:16). It is a concept unheard of in the Old Testament, where the authority of those who sat on the Chair of Moses (Matthew 23:2-3) existed. In addition to this, for 400 years, there was no defined canon of "Sacred Scripture" aside from the Old Testament; there was no "New Testament"; there was only Tradition and non-canonical books and letters.




Protestants claim the Bible is the only rule of faith, meaning that it contains all of the material one needs for theology and that this material is sufficiently clear that one does not need apostolic tradition or the Church’s magisterium (teaching authority) to help one understand it. In the Protestant view, the whole of Christian truth is found within the Bible’s pages. Anything extraneous to the Bible is simply non-authoritative, unnecessary, or wrong—and may well hinder one in coming to God.

Catholics, on the other hand, recognize that the Bible does not endorse this view and that, in fact, it is repudiated in Scripture. The true "rule of faith"—as expressed in the Bible itself—is Scripture plus apostolic tradition, as manifested in the living teaching authority of the Catholic Church, to which were entrusted the oral teachings of Jesus and the apostles, along with the authority to interpret Scripture correctly

Answer 6

>>1. why can't priests marry?<<

For the same reason doctors can't date or have sex with their patients. It is unethical and incestuous to be romantically involved with someone under one's care.
http://fampra.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/18/5/511

>>I know that there are married priests but they usually were married before they became catholic priests right?<<

While both the Orthodox and Catholic Churches ordain married men, neither permits priests to marry and remain in active ministry.

>>Jesus did not wear all of the garments that catholic preists wear nor did he and the disciples have such elaborate rituals.<<

A shirt and pants? (That's what the priests I know wear.) Jesus was a practicing Jew. Judaism is VERY ritualistic.

Answer 7

1. Priests can't marry because St. Augustine said so. Or maybe it was Constantine, but it was the "crazy" saint who enacted all sorts of things that are not in the Bible.
2. I would love to know the answer to this one myself!
3. You are correct about this. The Catholic religion is a false religion, much of it not based on the Bible, but on crowd control and wealth. I encourage everybody to take a Bible study and find out what the Bible has to say and see if you still want to follow whatever religion you had been following before. God wants you to have a personal relationship with him, God is love.
4. See #3...The Bible also says that living in a Christ-like manner is what is important, not the rituals that humans make up. You are going to be judged based on how you have lived your life, not how many Hail Mary's you can say or how many confessions you have made to a priest, a fellow man like yourself. The Bible warns against repetitive prayers (such as Hail Mary's) as they are not sincere. God wants what is from your heart, not what others are brainwashing/ guilt-tripping you into doing.
5. When you pray, your prayers SHOULD be directed to God. Jesus is the Son of God; do not confuse him with God or put him on the same level. We are not on the same level as our parents and Jesus is not on the same level as God. You can pray directly to God...in fact if you do so, much of the confusion the false religions bestow upon its followers will disappear and you will feel more at peace.

Answer 8

If case you haven't heard, the Holy Spirit of God is the God within you. Listen to the God within you and you'll know the answer. You can always accept the truth within you. We all know right from wrong regardless of what it says in the Bible. That is the Holy Spirit, He guides your thoughts and actions. Stop paying preists to guilt you into false hope. The truth is within you. Dare to question the Bible and finally find God. Stop letting religion opress you from knowing His truth. Know it is in you and let the pain float away. Be free and your prayers will be instantly enlightened.

Answer 9

If your questions are serious ,run right out and buy the Catechism of the Catholic Church or read it on the Net. God bless

Answer 10

Very sensible questions, indeed!!!

1. Priests are governed by the “Vow of Celibacy” within the Catholic Church. They use the verse in the Bible (I Corinthians 7:7-8;32-35) as basis for this rule - "But I would have you to be without solicitude. He that is without a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God. But he that is with a wife, is solicitous for the things of the world, how he may please his wife: and he is divided. And the unmarried woman and the virgin thinketh on the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit. But she that is married thinketh on the things of this world how she may please her husband. And this I speak for your profit, not to cast a snare upon you, but for that which is decent and which may give you power to attend upon the Lord without impediment."

Catholics understand celibacy to be a reflection of life in Heaven, and a source of detachment from the material world, which aids in one's relationship with God. Catholic priests are called to be espoused to the Church itself, and espoused to God.

However, since not all of the priest can bear with this law, many of them resorts to having “wives” outside the knowledge of the church.. Worst, many of them turn to the same sex.

2. All the practices of the Catholic Church originated from pagan beliefs and rituals. Thanks to the great effort of its founder, Constantine, in his desire to unite early Christians and pagans to further strengthen his empire. As you indeed realized, no rituals of the Catholic Church is biblical.

3. Meetings and fellowships of early christians ussually happens in houses of their brethrens. Once a week, they read the books in synagogues as what Jesus also did during his ministry. And you are right, that’s exactly what God wants us to do (though it may not happen these days anymore as people were already divided according to their respective “churches”). It is very hard to find REAL BRETHREN IN THE TRUE CHURCH these days.

4. The word CATHOLIC truly means “universal”. But this not necessarily refers to FAITH, nor CHURCH. This is more like a “government” system controlling the whole world. The “church=thing” is only used to cover up the whole government system. As you would noticed, the Catholic Church is not very particular with the bible nor teaching its members of the Word of God. As long as one attends weekly mass-its alright, or say and practice its rituals and practices – its okey. And you are quite right, next to Judaism, it is indeed the first well-established “church”.

5. .Jesus was given to us by God to mediate for us. And no one comes to God but by Jesus. But that does not mean you cannot pray to God directly. The word “mediator” needs more explanation from me and more studies from you.


I have only given you basic answers. Should you need a deeper understanding, and if you think I can be of little help, you can e-mail me anytime…and let’s walk together in this journey called FAITH.

God bless you, seth p……
GH