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| Disagree | 15% | 206 votes | Total: 1403 votes | |
| Agree | 85% | 1197 votes |
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Add to FavoritesI spent a massive ten productive years of my young life inside the seminary, hoping that one day I'll fulfill my dream. Despite my family's strong opposition, I left our home when I was 16 to get a degree in classical (Thomistic) philosophy and ultimately a master's degree in theology, all in preparation for the priesthood. Ten years later, however, after a year-long soul searching, I decided to leave for good and forget all about becoming a priest. I left at 26, a year before ordination. I had simple reason why I called it quits: God may not be calling me to the priesthood and I do not want to waste my time, energy and resources living a life of an unhappy priest. I was most free when I decided to dream for it, just as I was most free when decided not to pursue it.
Freedom is the ultimate force that binds the life of a priest. A priest becomes a priest because of freedom and a priest can leave the ministry if he freely chooses to. During the intensive mental, psychological and spiritual training, a candidate to the priesthood is well aware that becoming a priest is all about living a celibate life. Upon reaching ordination, he vows to live a life dedicated to the service of God through his people.
It is in the principle of responsible freedom that I respectfully disagree to the proposal that (Catholic) priests should be permitted to marry. The bureaucratic leadership of the Church, under Pope Benedict XVI, must have been the proper authority to lay down the arguments why priests should not be permitted to marry. But just the same, the Magisterium and the apostolic teachings of the Church are clear that priests in the Latin Church shall live a celibate life.
I believe that priests in the Latin Church should live a celibate life to maintain the rich tradition of the Church. It has been a universal notion from time immemorial until today and until the future that priests are celibates for the sake of the Kingdom of God. This is a universal understanding from across the globe unique to Catholic priests alone, because there are priests in other Christian churches who are actually married. There exists among them (Catholic priests) a universal concept of brotherhood, surpassing the many barriers of race, culture, ethnic origin, economic standing, and many others.
The priesthood is a model of unity. Today the world is confronted with the issue of individualism and collectivism. The secular world is a perfect image of disunity and imbalance. This is seen in the economic standing of nations across the globe. Africa and other parts of Asia are associated with poverty and hunger; while Europe and America are the epitome of perfect economic living. But when priests from these parts of the world gather together in Rome to renew their commitment, a perfect union of diverse economic and cultural origins is born.
It is true (and I witness it myself) that abuses inside the Church do exist. They said that one of the primary solutions to end the abuses from within or even outside the Church is by allowing priests to marry. If this is a logical solution, the Church might have long ago allowed priests to marry, without us arguing this issue right now. Sadly though, this is not a solution since allowing priests to marry is only to aggravate the abuses of many forms. We know from time immemorial that the Catholic Church is run uninterruptedly by a hierarchy of men and men alone, from St. Peter the Apostle down to Benedict XVI in our time. The power of the Church is distributed among these men all over the world. To maintain obedience and loyalty of men of various principles and personalities all over the world without violating their innate freedom is an extraordinary achievement, again, unique to Catholic priests alone. If they are allowed to marry, a worldwide disintegration of the sacred image of priesthood is a dangerous effect, knowing that the family concerns (if they are married) are of paramount importance or even far more urgent than the duties of the workplace.
Upon ordination, the candidate to the priesthood declares publicly his promise of obedience to his bishop or to his boss, so to speak, and to his boss' successor. This promise of obedience expands from the moment he is ordained until the moment of his death, for he is a priest forever. This is to ensure that service to God though the people is fulfilled not only during the day, but basically twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, because he is a servant. Priesthood is seemingly a selfish profession, aimed at glorifying oneself and the Church. But first and foremost, priesthood is not a profession; it is a vocation. God called men to serve him through his people. When priests are permitted to marry, there is an obvious confusion on the part of the priest in matters of loyalty and service, his family or his Church.
A litany of reasons can be written why priests should not be permitted to marry, but suffice it to say that my final argument is to rebut the claims of the proponents of married priesthood. Mostly, if not all, of the advocates of the married priesthood (those who say that priests should marry) are themselves priests who left the ministry to marry. It is amazing to realize that after having been educated about the essence of priesthood (that they will live a celibate life for the rest of their lives) and after turning their back on the priesthood by getting married, now they want to turn the table around to suit their demands. If this is the ultimate reason why priests should be permitted to marry (so that ex-priests can also freely exercise their ministry), then this is nothing but a mockery of the sacred image of priesthood.
Learn more about this author, Rodolfo N. Lentejas, Jr..
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Agree
As an Eastern Orthodox Christian, and one who is engaged to a man who feels called to become a priest, I absolutely believe that priests should be permitted to marry. Rather, to be more precise, married men should be allowed to be ordained as priests.
The tradition of married priests goes back to the beginning of Christian history, and has continued in the Eastern Orthodox Churches into the modern day. Clerical celibacy did not become mandatory until the eleventh century, and then only in Western Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church. Clearly the Western Church is the one who has changed its practices and the Eastern Church is more in line with early Christian tradition.
One argument for clerical celibacy is the idea that priests will not have enough time or energy to care for their family and their parish at the same time. If that were the case, the Eastern churches (and most Protestant denominations, for that matter) would have fallen apart long ago. It makes sense that priests should not be allowed to marry after they are ordained, mostly because priests should be discouraged from pursuing their parishioners in romantic relationships. However, it is illogical to suggest that a priest would not have the time or energy to take care of his parish if he has a wife and family when many parents in similarly demanding jobs are able to balance work and family.
But perhaps because clerical celibacy has been required for so long in the Catholic Church, the job of a priest has intensified beyond that which a married man with a family is capable of. If this is the case, allowing married men to be ordained as priests may result in individual priests having to carry reduced work loads, but it will also result in a larger pool of available candidates for the priesthood. Many men feel called to be a priest and to have a wife and family, and must either choose one or the other or leave the Catholic Church for one that ordains married clergy.
It would not be right for the Church to end the mandate of clerical celibacy simply to create more interest in the priesthood if clerical celibacy were deemed necessary by theology and tradition, but it is not. Rather, Christian tradition supports the ordination of married men into the priesthood. The fact that removing the mandate of clerical celibacy would help solve the Catholic Church's priest shortage is only proof that this tradition is correct.
Learn more about this author, Amelia Hill.
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