Let Fathers Be Fathers (it is as much to do with sex as with fatherhood)

[rodeodance]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/10/opinion/10kristof.html?th&emc=th
Let Fathers Be Fathers
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Published: April 10, 2005

Here's my prophecy about the next pope: He will allow married men to become priests......


The upshot is that the Catholic Church is losing ground around the world to evangelical and especially Pentecostal churches. In Brazil, which has more Catholics than any other country, Pentecostals are gaining so quickly that they could overtake Catholics over the next decades.

No one understands the desperate need for clergy more than the cardinals themselves. In fact, John Paul II himself laid the groundwork for an end to the celibacy requirement.

....It's true that St. Peter, the first pope, was married, and so were many of the apostles and early popes. But then Christians began to put more emphasis on chastity, with Tertullian describing women as "the gateway to the devil.".....

[patricia92243]

1. So the words of Tertullian outweighed the actions of St. Peter. Hmmm...

[dsc]

2. In the Catholic Bible Peter isn't married

[Nikki Stone 1]

7. That's false. Peter clearly had an ill mother-in-law whom Jesus cured

And a mother-in-law implies a wife.

See: Matthew 8:14-15, which specifically refers to Simon Peter's mother-in-law's cure.



I was raised Catholic and we were taught in religious ed classes that Simon Peter was married. So was Paul, but his wife died before he started his mission.

[XemaSab]

3. Jesus was married

:evilgrin:

[Donald Ian Rankin]

5. Yes, but he was only a layman, surely?

[eallen]

4. The rule that priests must be unmarried dates from the middle ages.

Centuries after Tertullian was rotting in his grave, quite a few bishops, and even a couple of popes, tried to pass their reign to their sons. At some point -- you'll have to look the history if you want to know exactly when -- the church instituted the rule on priests not marrying. It is a rule that came in the middle of church history, not core doctrine.

It also has some exceptions. Married Episcopalian priests who convert to Catholicism may remain priests. And they have to stay married, since the Church doesn't recognize divorce.

All of this is absolutely nuts. As even Tertullian recognized. "Credo quia absurdum." Like all rational people, I hope humanity grows beyond its need to believe in absurdities. I'm not holding my breath.

:hippie:

[DenaliDemocrat]

6. Priests CAN be married....

We have one in my parish. The thing is, you must come from another religion (my priest used to be a Methodist)and have to have been married, then, if you conver, you can become a priest. It's a weird rule.

[Nikki Stone 1]

8. Actually, I disagree with Kristof's reasoning here

How would married priests help in the competition with the Pentacostal movement? I don't see the connection. Marriage in itself does not gain a priest more adherents or a better advantage over a Pentacostal minister.

All I can figure is that Kristoff is implying that the numbers of priests will increase greatly if married men were allowed to be priests, especially in the US. I am not so sure that this would be the case. Being a priest or minister is not traditionally the way to riches or even to the reasonable support of a family. People who enter religion to make money are usually not serving the religion well, since their goals are "both God and Mammon" if you will.

The argument for married priests is usually made by people who think that a married man will better understand the pressures of family life than a single man (who is totally cared for by the church), and that a married man is more likely to understand the need for birth control and better communication with women. Actually, though, the fundamentalist movement in this country has proved that married ministers can be WORSE than the average Catholic priest on not only family issues but on other issues like war, capital punishment, etc.

I don't know that married priests will make any difference at all--except to cause a change in the Catholic Church's structure. The other problem with married priests is that, like full time military personnel, priests can be moved from city to city at any time by the Church hierarchy. Any priest with kids would have to deal with the "military kid" syndrome that is so common among children who have moved from base to base every 2 years or so without a long term home. Being a priest's kid might be a cruel thing indeed, and the average married priest might have MORE problems with his family than his parishoners.