An article today on Catholic News Service states that at a Mass where Pope Benedict ordained 22 men, be pleaded for more vocations to the priesthood. I cannot believe we are still having this debate, but of course the easy answer to his prayers would be to allow women and married men to become priests in the Roman Catholic Church.
Last I heard, the core of the faith was contained in the Nicene Creed. And the Nicene Creed does not state: "I believe in an all male celibate priesthood. I believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church where chrism oil will NEVER be touch the body of a woman for the purpose of ordination."
The real reason there are not women priests right now is that until recently, women were not considered whole human beings. Both Augustine and Aquinas state as much. And the reason that marriend men are not ordained priests in the Roman Church is because Rome does not want priests saying Mass who have just had sex. There are numerous documents throughout the ages by bishops and theologians asking priests not to "descrate" themselves with their wives before celebrating Mass.
For more infomation on this debate which should be over by now, check out womenpriests.org.
A Faithful Catholic
1 comment:
Greetings! Saw your post in Gogle Blogsearch...
As a faithful Catholic you already know that the Church is unable to allow women as priests as the Church lacks the authority to do so. The Pope can't even change it if he wanted to.
We both know that married priests are allowed by scripture, but your allusion to it being almost solely a sex before mass problem is an oversimplification. The biggest reason is the "two masters" problem. Trying to balance serving the Lord ad serving one's family and its worldly needs.
There's also the problem of sexual immorrality which seems to be higher among married clergy than unmarried. Something like half of married non-Catholic ministers have been involved in inappropriate sexual activities with their flocks.
http://www.advocateweb.org/cease/csa.htm
Seems St Paul was right regarding celibacy.
God bless...
- Timothy
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