Catholic Priests...........?

Question

Why aren't Catholic Priests allowed to get married and do you think they should be allowed to?

Answer 1

I'm a Catholic Priest and I am married. Do you mean "Roman" Catholic Priests?

Do I think they should be allowed to? Yes, of course.

The Scriptural reasons that the RCC gives are as follows:

First of all: Priestly Celibacy is Church Practice, Not Dogma!

Matt. 19:11-12 - Jesus says celibacy is a gift from God and whoever can bear it should bear it. Jesus praises and recommends celibacy for full-time ministers in the Church. Because celibacy is a gift from God, those who criticize the Church's practice of celibacy are criticizing God and this wonderful gift He bestows on His chosen ones.

Matt. 19:29 - Jesus says that whoever gives up children for the sake of His name will receive a hundred times more and will inherit eternal life. Jesus praises celibacy when it is done for the sake of His kingdom.

Matt. 22:30 - Jesus explains that in heaven there are no marriages. To bring about Jesus' kingdom on earth, priests live the heavenly consecration to God by not taking a wife in marriage. This way, priests are able to focus exclusively on the spiritual family, and not have any additional pressures of the biological family (which is for the vocation of marriage). This also makes it easier for priests to be transferred to different parishes where they are most needed without having to worry about the impact of their transfer on wife and children.

1 Cor 7:1 – Paul teaches that it is well for a man not to touch a woman. This is the choice that the Catholic priests of the Roman rite freely make.

1 Cor. 7:7 - Paul also acknowledges that celibacy is a gift from God and wishes that all were celibate like he is.

1 Cor. 7:27 – Paul teaches men that they should not seek marriage. In Paul’s opinion, marriage introduces worldly temptations that can interfere with one’s relationship with God, specifically regarding those who will become full-time ministers in the Church.

1 Cor. 7:32-33, 38 - Paul recommends celibacy for full-time ministers in the Church so that they are able to focus entirely upon God and building up His kingdom. He “who refrains from marriage will do better.”

1 Tim. 3:2 - Paul instructs that bishops must be married only once. Many Protestants use this verse to prove that the Church's celibacy law is in error. But they are mistaken because this verse refers to bishops that were widowers. Paul is instructing that these widowers could not remarry. The verse also refers to those bishops who were currently married. They also could not remarry (in the Catholic Church's Eastern rite, priests are allowed to marry; celibacy is only a disciplinary rule for the clergy of the Roman rite). Therefore, this text has nothing to do with imposing a marriage requirement on becoming a bishop.

1 Tim. 4:3 - in this verse, Paul refers to deceitful doctrines that forbid marriage. Many non-Catholics also use this verse to impugn the Church's practice of celibacy. This is entirely misguided because the Catholic Church (unlike many Protestant churches) exalts marriage to a sacrament. In fact, marriage is elevated to a sacrament, but consecrated virginity is not. The Church declares marriage sacred, covenantal and lifegiving. Paul is referring to doctrines that forbid marriage and other goods when done outside the teaching of Christ and for a lessor good. Celibacy is an act of giving up one good (marriage and children) for a greater good (complete spiritual union with God).

1 Tim. 5:9-12 - Paul recommends that older widows take a pledge of celibacy. This was the beginning of women religious orders.

2 Tim. 2:3-4 - Paul instructs his bishop Timothy that no soldier on service gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim his to satisfy the One who enlisted him. Paul is using an analogy to describe the role of the celibate priesthood in the Church.

Rev. 14:4 - unlike our sinful world of the flesh, in heaven, those consecrated to virginity are honored.

Isaiah 56:3-7 - the eunuchs who keep God's covenant will have a special place in the kingdom of heaven.

Jer. 16:1-4 - Jeremiah is told by God not to take a wife or have children.

Answer 2

Priests, religious brothers and religious sisters (nuns) as part of their vocation choose not to marry following:
+ The practice recommended in the Bible
+ The example of Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, and the Apostle Paul.

+++ Scripture +++

In Matthew 19:12, Jesus says, "Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it."

In Matthew 19:29, Jesus says, "And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life."

Matthew 22:30 - Jesus explains, "At the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels in heaven."

In 1 Corinthians 7:1, Paul writes, "It is a good thing for a man not to touch a woman."

Then in 1 Corinthians 7:7, Paul says, "Indeed, I wish everyone to be as I am."

In 1 Corinthians 7:27, Paul writes, "Are you free of a wife? Then do not look for a wife."

In 1 Corinthians 7:32-33, Paul teaches, "I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife." And in verse 38, "So then, the one who marries his virgin does well; the one who does not marry her will do better."

Paul recommends celibacy for full time ministers in the Church so that they are able to focus entirely upon God and building up His kingdom. He “who refrains from marriage will do better.”

See also 1 Timothy 5:9-12, 2 Timothy 2:3-4, Revevation 14:4, Isaiah 56:3-7, and Jeremiah 16:1-4.

+++ Scriptural Examples +++

Biblical role models of a celibate clergy came from John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Apostle Paul.

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.

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

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.

With love in Christ.

Answer 3

Married men are allowed to become priests in the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church. This is not the case in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. This is not a doctrinal issue. It is simply a discipline (rule) made buy the Church. Should the Church come to believe that changing such rules will be in the best interest of the Church and the priesthood, the rule can be changed. The celibate priesthood follows the biblical teaching of Paul, who strongly advises that full time ministers of the gospel remain unmarried, as he himself did, lest they be divided between responsibilities of ministry and family responsibilities. This is probably the reason the divorce rate is so high among Protestant clergy.

Answer 4

Catholic Priests are, in essence, married to the Church. See? How can one devote his life to two things at once? It's being disrespectful to God, and NO the rule should NOT CHANGE!!! Three paths to life: Marriage, Holy Orders, Single. Keep it that way.

Answer 5

Roman Catholic Priests use to be allowed to get married but that was gotten rid of because the chucrches couldn't afford to support the family of the priest.

Answer 6

I think a bunch of them are really gay. I don't know how anyone doesn't really have any desire for anyone else. It wouldn't surprise me if some of them are secretly looking at porn.

Genesis "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."

Answer 7

Again, another example of how Catholics stray from the truth in the Bible. No where in the Bible does it say church leaders aren't allowed to get married.

Answer 8

Clerical celibacy is not a Church doctrine. It is a discipline, and so can be changed. The pope could wake up tomorrow and allow priests to marry. Moreover, in the early centuries there were married priests, starting with some of the apostles. We know that Peter was married, because we're told that Jesus cured his mother-in-law. The immediate successors to the apostles were also allowed to marry. Paul writes to Timothy that a bishop should be "married but once." Clearly, by not permitting married clergy, the Church since the early Middle Ages has departed from the more commodious practice of the early hierarchy.

There are, in fact, married priests in the Latin Church today. There aren't many, because a priest may have a wife only in one circumstance: A Lutheran or Episcopalian minister who is already married and wishes to convert to Catholicism is allowed the option of becoming a Catholic priest, on condition that his wife gives full consent. You don't usually see these married priests, because they're generally not given parish assignments; they teach in seminaries or work in the chancery.



Paul understood this perfectly well when he wrote to the Corinthians, "For he who 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 this world, how he may please his wife; and he is divided" (1 Cor 7:32-34).



There are many reasons, both practical and theological, why the Church insists on clerical celibacy. It is a wise practice that was gradually codified in light of centuries of accumulated knowledge and experience. Early on, it became obvious to many bishops that a married priesthood doesn't work and that the Church needs men who are willing to embrace a higher spiritual state. Starting with the Spanish Council of Elvira in 305, regional churches began to ask of the clergy what many priests had already spontaneously chosen. The early Church Fathers — Tertullian, Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, and Hilary — wrote in favor of clerical celibacy, and at the end of the Dark Ages, great reforming popes like Leo IX and Gregory VII insisted that henceforth the priesthood would be celibate. This decision greatly strengthened the Church and still does so today.

Admittedly, there's no hint in the New Testament of celibacy being mandatory either among the apostles or those they ordained. But we have ample warrant in the words of Christ and the writings of Paul that celibacy is a higher calling than marriage. Christ Himself was celibate, and the Incarnation took place, so to speak, in the context of Mary and Joseph's abstention from sexual relations. Pope Benedict XVI has written eloquently about how Mary's virginity is really a condition of spiritual fruitfulness. At one point, the disciples ask Christ if it is "expedient not to marry?" He replies that "not all can accept this teaching; but those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born so...and there are eunuchs who have made themselves so for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let him accept it who can" (Mt 19:10-12).

1. Priests are required to remain celibate in order to imitate Christ, who was celibate.
2. Sex, according to Catholic teaching is a sacred act that is to be confined to marriage. Marriage, itself is a Sacrament which means that it (and the people who are married to each other) is to be a sign of God's love to the world. Like all seven Sacraments, it is a source of Grace (the free and unmerited favor or beneficence of God). Ideally, a married couple should, by the power of this Grace, model some of the various aspects of God's nature: Love, Forgiveness, Permanence, Unity, Life Creating, Parenting, etc. The Sacramental married couple should order their lives so that the world can get a glimpse of some of what God is really like. And the married couple are responsible for doing everything possible to get each other into heaven. A married couple promises to be faithful to each other forsaking all others until death. This faithfulness includes sexual fidelity (but is not limited to sex). The reason for this promised fidelity is, again, to model God in his faithfulness to us, but also, because the Church sees sex as such a Holy and wonderful thing that it insists that it be shared exclusively between man and wife only.

Because, for Catholics, marriage is a very high calling it asks more of us than simply a man and woman living together, having children and sharing companionship. It is a vocation.

A man becomes a priest by the Sacrament of Holy Orders. It is similar to the Sacrament of Matrimony (or marriage) in that it calls certain people from the congregation to live a life devoted to the Glory of God, imaging him in certain, though different ways as in marriage. It is a different path to salvation, one with its own challenges and gifts. The priest, for example, is given the Grace of celibacy and promises to remain celibate or free from all sexual activity in a similar way that married couples remain celibate with respect to everyone except their husband or wife. It is another way to image God to the world in his total dedication to God, the Sacrament and his people. We are all sexual beings in every cell of our bodies. The priesthood does not deny that sexuality. Rather, it calls a man to live it out (as a celibate) in a different manner than marriage does.

Answer 9

Nothing in the Bible stating they can't be married. It's their own choice, not God's.

Answer 10

yeah, they should be allowed so that they wouldn't turn gay...........most priest are gays......disgusting.....they are making the LORD a fool...