Aide to Pope Suggests Priests Could Marry

(Wow!  This is HUGE!)

Quoted Text

"The Vatican's new secretary of state has said that priestly celibacy is not
church dogma and therefore open to discussion, marking a significant change
in approach towards one of the thorniest issues facing the Roman Catholic Church."

NBC NEWS
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_.....n-to-discussion?lite

breaking the tradition of "sacrifice" in no way subject to change.

IMO, there are lots of men who might be priests if celibacy were optional.  Most other religions have married
clergy, and the Catholic Church has a huge lack of priests.

Quoted from Patches

breaking the tradition of "sacrifice" in no way subject to change.

The tradition is from the Catholic doctrine, not from Christianity in general... Celibacy for a priest is NOT in the bible.

They made that rule to avoid inheritance and support issues. No family, no problem.

Quoted from Madam X

They made that rule to avoid inheritance and support issues. No family, no problem.

So who gets to keep the parish priests brand new Escalade when the priest dies???

B O R....great question

It would depend on whether it belonged to the church or the priest, wouldn't it? I know that priests do not take a vow of poverty, and I believe that they are entitled to keep the proceeds from books they write and so forth for themselves, but somebody who is current with the catholic church would have to confirm that.

what happened to the "vow of poverty" ?....isn't that part of entering the priesthood....sacrifice "

don't really know what the big issue is here. it is just a religion.
they can change the rules anytime and if the followers don't agree....then go to another....simple as that!
and actually in most religious sects....if a portion of the flock doesn't agree with a change in doctorine....they just split off.
that's historical....again....no big deal here!

there are bigger fish to fry!

It's a big issue to many catholics. The priest shortage is one of the reasons you see churches getting demolished for Price Choppers.
Not all priests take a vow of poverty. I think all nuns do, but there could be exceptions. I'm not pretending to be the last word on this. BTW, celibacy and chastity are not the same thing. We use celibate to mean chaste today, but its original meaning was "unmarried".

what I think i...is...  zzzzzz


to quote DVR

Quoted from Madam X

The priest shortage is one of the reasons you see churches getting demolished for Price Choppers.

not true! there are enough clergy in ALL religions......there is just not as many folks going to church anymore. There is not enough money coming in to support churches....so they sell and/or sometimes merge with other churches. Allowing priests to marry (which i could care less if they do or not) is not going to be the end all for an increase in church goers. Churches that do allow their pastors to marry are also experiencing low attendance. And NYS is among the lowest in attendance.

Catholic Priest Shortage:

In 2008, 49,631 parishes in the world had no resident priest pastor.
While the number of Catholics in the world nearly doubled between 1970 and 2008, growing
from 653 Million to 1.166 Billion, the total number of priests declined from 419,728 to 409,166.

.The Catholic Church in the USA is unique in that the declining number of priests in parish ministry
is producing a marked increase in the number of 'priestless' parishes. In 1960, only about 3 percent
of Catholic parishes had no resident pastor. By 2000 that figure was up to 13 percent, and by the
summer of 2003 it had risen to 16 percent".

I agree....in part......but many  churches, schools, convents and monasteries are being closed due to either a decline in attendance, a lack of available funding or a decline in religious vocations (priesthood or religious life).

I think it all is part of the decline in general. Allowing priests to marry (again i don't care if they do or don't) is not going to be the saving grace for the church when there are other factors that are part of the decline.