I pose a serious question.
Why can’t preists marry and have children?
The Catholic Church believes that gay and lesbian relationships are sin, because they do not pro-create. The Catholic faith believes that men and women should only have sex to pro-create, so much so that sexual contraceptives are not sold in Vatican city. So, if pro-creation is so important to Catholics, then why can’t priests marry and have sex/children.
“Because they are married to God”, I hear you say.
Well my friend, that may be so. But, I still find flaws in this. Firstly, a LEGAL marriage is one between A MAN AND A WOMAN, voluntarily entered into, to the exclusion of all others, for life. So, in a LEGAL sense, no, a priest is NOT married to god.
“But spiritually, in the eyes of the Church they are”, I hear you one again say.
Well my friend, another flaw in your fantastic religion. If a man is MARRIED TO GOD spiritually, is that not a homosexual relationship, one of which the church looks down upon? Although ‘God’ and a priest cannot consummate a marriage, does not deem it to to be less homosexual. If a lesbian couple walked into a church and claimed that they were abstinent, they would STILL be committing a sin in the eyes of the lord for not pro-creating.
So I ask again. WHY CAN’T PREISTS MARRY AND HAVE CHILDREN?
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
Number 1: Not pro-creating is not a sin. Celibacy is clearly celebrated in the Bible
Number 2: God is not a male, He's an omnipotent being. We call Him a "He" because in our society, "He" showed more respect. (Sadly.) and calling God and "It" sounds disrespectful.
Number 3: Gay and Lesbians in the eyes of the Church are not seen as evil. Only the act of sex in a gay and lesbian relationship is a sin.
So finally, Number 4: Priest cannot marry and bear children because they are not ONLY married to God. They are married and bonded the the service of the Community and the Church itself.
I hope this removed your confusion.
Many priests can get married. See the Orthodox Church and the Episcopal/Anglican Church.
I was led to believe that Roman priests were forbidden to marry because they would then leave their worldly goods to their children and the Church wanted those goods for itself.
Perhaps Father Joseph means priests are permitted to enter into a celibate marriage. Good luck with that one.
The Church forbids no one to marry. Some priests choose a life of celibacy. Both Jesus and St. Paul recommended celibacy as a dedicated service to God. God bless!
In Christ
Fr. Joseph
Note: The Latin Rite of the Catholic Church has a discipline of only selecting men who have chosen to live a celibate life and who swear a vow of celibacy. However there is an exception and that is if a Protestant minister reverts to Catholicism he is accepted as a priest and if he is married remains married. There are 22 other Rites of the Catholic Church that allow married priests and do not have the discipline of celibacy.
The fact remains that the Church encourages marriage and procreation and does not forbid anyone to marry. A priest who leaves the priesthood and decides to marry has broken his vow to God to remain celibate and is lacitized for breaking his vow and not for marrying.
Catholic priests can't get married and have children because, in the late middle ages, the Vatican was trying to prevent its clergy from bequeathing property and real estate to their descendants. The Church wanted to keep the property. Thus, it made up myths and metaphors about priests being "married to the Church." Likewise with nuns, who are told they are "married to Christ."
Anthropologists and historians have long discussed how kinship (marriage, family organization and descent groups) developed as a type of economic and political alliance. In that regard, the Vatican simply made up a fictitious, theological kinship system that maintained an endogamous (exclusive, to itself) marriage/kinship network between its earthly members (priests and nuns) and spiritual members (saints and deities).
In this light, the gay/lesbian issue seems a more distant issue. No less problematic, but distant nevertheless. But clearly the Church is a master of making things up as it goes. It helps to have a long history of threatening people with excommunication, extortion, Inquisitions and colonialism.
This is from 1 corinthians 7:32-38. I hope it helps you understand. God bless and have a good day. 32 , 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. 33 But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, 34 and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit. A married woman, on the other hand, is anxious about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. 35 I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint upon you, but for the sake of propriety and adherence to the Lord without distraction. 36 13 14 If anyone thinks he is behaving improperly toward his virgin, and if a critical moment has come and so it has to be, let him do as he wishes. He is committing no sin; let them get married. 37 The one who stands firm in his resolve, however, who is not under compulsion but has power over his own will, and has made up his mind to keep his virgin, will be doing well. 38 So then, the one who marries his virgin does well; the one who does not marry her will do better
They can. They can be married, have children, then if they are widowed (or the marriage annulled), they can be priests. Or they can be priests in a religion other than Catholicism. Or they can have children through artificial insemination. They can be married through government ritual, but not Consummate it, which is not marriage by Catholic standards.
What's your question have to do with philosophy???
This is question about religious dogma, and you'll get more answers, and more authoritive responses, asking this question in the R&S section.
I don't understand abstinence either. People screwed up what God is all about and they call that crumpled mess religion.
God invented sex to be enjoyed between two people out of love and respect and fun. All three. It's an almost spiritual experience.
Piousness is the state in which a human refuses to act like a human.
Good question that I don't know the answer to. But isn't it funny how preists tell us how to live as a married couple and how to behave, when they don't know anything about the world outside their church? ha
Priests can't marry because God said to love him more than anyone else.
Priests can't have children because...well... they can't marry!
If they want to marry and have children, they have to leave the priesthood.