Catholic Question

[Angry Dragon]

It is my understanding that their god demanded that they go out and multiply.

How come the pope, cardinals, bishops, priests are exempt from this demand??
Or was their god just talking about learning the new math??

[Vincardog]

1. In the original version the clergy was required to "perform". The argument can be made

that for Jesus to be a Rabi he had to be married and probably the father of children.

The "celibate" requirement is a MAN MADE answer to the problem of inheritance.
The church did not want Church property and position to become intrenched thru inheritance.
So if priests can not be married their children can not inherit church property nor position.

I believe there is a current cable TV show about what happens when the church is allowed to be controlled by "families".

[MANative]

8. this is accurate

It was a direct response to priests from wealthy families giving their property to their children rather than to the church. Priests were allowed to marry until Pope Augustine, IIRC. It was more about building church wealth than any moral imperative.

[ZombieHorde]

2. The Catholic clergy are supposed to be too attached to God to get married. nt

[CountAllVotes]

3. according to the gospel

Priests do not get married because they are married to God, their creator.

Period.

[Stuckinthebush]

4. Which gospel?

Where? Matthew, Mark, Luke or John?

[CountAllVotes]

7. The New American Bible

That is the one that the Church uses these days.

However, the thing about priests being "married" to God is nothing new.

They teach them all about this when they are in the seminary which they would not be in to begin with if they didn't know that they are signing themselves to God for "marriage" so to speak.

I'm not a man so I don't know specifics but my husband who is from a old Irish Catholic family knows all about this and could probably give a whole lot more insight to it than I ever could.

He was going to be a priest in fact but decided not to become one. It was a great job in Ireland for any man in the Depression years.

[Humanist_Activist]

10. As far as I'm aware of, no mention of any of that is in the Bible...

the whole priests must not be married is an extra-biblical principle, and one that wasn't even around when the church was getting off the ground.

[FarCenter]

16. See Matthew 19 and 1 Corinthians 7

Paul was not favorably disposed towards marriage.

[Humanist_Activist]

18. Paul didn't want anyone to get married, thought it was a distraction from preparing for Jesus'...

return. Paul started, in Christianity, an apocalyptic cult, after all, and thought Jesus was coming back in his lifetime.

I believe he also discouraged his followers from having children, which is ironic considering how prolific they are today.

[CountAllVotes]

17. you are right best I know

I'm no expert believe me but I've never seen it written in any bible.

It is something that is taught/learned when a man decides he wants to become a priest -- taking the vow of celibacy which is a total joke.

My godmother's nephew was a priest. They had pictures of him all over their house.

However, he fell in love with a nun and they both dropped out of the Church and got married.

Those pictures that covered the walls of my godmother's house vanished very fast, that much I do remember.

[Angry Dragon]

12. So the Bible gets changed to fit the belief and dogma??

[CountAllVotes]

13. I've seen many different Catholic bibles

When my mother died, I found about 20-30 of them. Whatta mess is all I can say.

[Angry Dragon]

14. That sounds a lot like the Mormons

They change their books all the time
and they didn't start until the 1800's

[CountAllVotes]

15. basically the same book

One of them I still have. My dad bought it for her as he liked all of the fancy color pictures in it. It is close to 1,000 pages long and weighs about 15 lbs.!

There were plenty of others too, some longer than others.

However, one in particular comes to mind. While she was dying, the local priest went to see her a couple of times a week (and may God bless him for doing that!). She wanted me to bring her "her bible". So, I went to her house and looked for "her bible" and found all of these other old bibles. I didn't know one from the next so picked up one that was left next to her chair.

It was not the right one it seems and she had a fit about that. I couldn't bring myself to tell her that it had likely gone out to the dumps with a lot of her other stuff. She said, "If you threw that bible of mine away, God will get you for that!". I was freaked out and told the priest about this incident and he said to me, "Well you are doing the very best you can given the circumstances." That gave me a lot of relief, believe me. She died about 3 months after the diagnosis of cancer that had spread throughout her entire body very quickly. It was a very sad time in my life and I am very glad that said priest (who has since time retired) was there for her and me, I will say that much.

As for the rest of them, I ended up donating them all to the Church/charity if I remember right.

[Liberalynn]

5. We were always told too that priests and nuns

needed to be free to serve their parrishoners needs twenty four hours a day and that having a family of their own would limit that ability and cause diviided loyalites. Plus we were told it would'nt be fair to any potential family either.

Not saying I personally ever believed that to be true, because I think plenty of married clergy can do just fine in both areas, just saying one rationalization for the policy, our Catholic School teachers gave us.

[LuvNewcastle]

6. If I remember correctly, the "be fruitful and multiply"

command came after the Great Flood when God told Noah and his family to repopulate the Earth. I can't think of any similar command in the New Testament. According to the Bible, Jesus told his Apostles to leave their families and follow him. St. Paul is said to have been unmarried. Self-denial is important in much of Christianity, and denying oneself of sexual pleasures is a common subject in many Christian writings. Monasticism certainly played a role in this, but I think that monasticism probably exploited a tendency that was already in the religion rather than being a cause of it. For a long time, chastity has been something practiced by those who seem to have a special relationship with God.

[FarCenter]

9. Celibacy of the Clergy

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03481a.htm

The Catholic Encyclopedia online.

[Angry Dragon]

11. I read it as man-made not god demand