Monday, June 01, 2009

Catalogue / Index: Non-Catholic Belief-Systems ("-Isms")

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3 comments:

Greenwarrior said...

Hello Dave, I'm an ex-Baptist thinking about becoming a Catholic, but before I do, I have about mandatory clerical celibacy. I do not deny that celibacy is a gift to the Church, which both Jesus and Apostle St. Paul say, and that it leads an unhindered spiritual life. But, 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:5-7 make the requirements of clergy being married and having children. Even if it's just limiting polygamy, which I'm not sure, should celibacy still be made mandatory for ordaining clergy?

Tue Apr 17, 05:22:00 AM EDT
Dave Armstrong said...

It's a disciplinary decision. Every institution has the right to set its rules. The Catholic Church decided that it wanted its clergy to be of the sort that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians: to draw from the pool of those men called to undistracted devotion to the Lord.

It's not a dogma: just a rule. But in eastern Catholicism, married clergy are allowed.

I always use the example of the military and sports. If you are 4 feet tall, you won't be able to play in the NBA. If you can't walk, chances are you won't be in combat, etc.

So the Church says, "we want our priests to be celibate so they can give their whole attention to the flock, and not divide it between the flock and their wives and children.

Talk to some "PKs" in the Protestant world, to see how well it works out having a pastor for a father. This is great practical and spiritual wisdom. It comes right from Paul, after all, and his model and that of Jesus and most of the disciples.

Tue Apr 17, 11:20:00 AM EDT
Adomnan said...

In addition to what Dave wrote, I would also like to comment on the following:

Greenwarrior: "1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:5-7 make the requirements of clergy being married and having children."

St. Paul could hardly be requiring the clergy to be married, when he himself was celibate and commended that way of life.

Greenwarrior: "Even if it's just limiting polygamy, which I'm not sure, should celibacy still be made mandatory for ordaining clergy?"

I doubt that Paul's reference to a bishop or presbyter being "the husband of one wife" has anything to do with polygamy. Polygamy was not current in Paul's milieu. There's no evidence of it in the New Testament, for instance. What Paul probably means is that a bishop or presbyter should be the husband of "at most" one wife in his lifetime; that is, that he should not remarry if his wife dies. Given that there was no restriction on laymen remarrying, this is actually a step towards a rule of clerical celibacy in that Paul stipulated that widowed clergymen must remain celibate.

No second clerical marriage was the rule in the churches under Paul's direct supervision; it's not a rule for the universal church for all time. The Latin rite was free to adopt a stricter discipline, and it did.

Requirements for ordination are something for the hierarchy to determine, not we laymen. They set the rules for their own order.

Wed Apr 18, 02:03:00 AM EDT

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