General Chat

If I recall correctly from my younger days, the response to "why don't priests marry?", was

"that the parish and parishioners were his family, and as he was supposed to have no wealth in his own right, and as he was also considered to be too poor to support a family of his own he will remain unmarried"

The Roman Catholic church is not a cult.
Comments on this subject should be informed otherwise don't post or stick to budgie rustling.
0/20 :-P

Of course they should marry if they wish to. Marriage for priests is not only allowed but encouraged for all other Christian denominations as well as Islam and the Jewish faith.

The long overdue reforms which the Pope is attempting to push through must be encouraged. However several well known popes and cardinals were married and used their office to further family interests ... not what is wanted.

A Catholic priest who left active ministry after admitting a relationship with a woman is being replaced by a married priest.

Parishioners at St Thomas More Catholic Church in Coventry were informed in October that their parish priest had decided “after careful consideration and for personal reasons” to step down from his duties in order to consider his future.

A fortnight ago, his departure was confirmed in a statement from the Archdiocese of Birmingham that said: “It is with regret that we must now let you know of the PP's decision to leave the priesthood.”

According to parishioners, the PP – who celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his ordination earlier this year – left after falling in love with a female parishioner.

The archdiocese also announced that PP's replacement would be a 53-year-old former Anglican priest who is set to arrive at the presbytery next week, from his current parish of St Anne’s in Nuneaton, with his wife and three children aged 10, 13 and 16.

“This really points out the contradictions in the Church’s current position on celibacy,” said the chair of the Movement for Married Clergy. “The truth about any law is that it has to be consistent, and here we see an inconsistency.

“Ordaining married ex-Anglican priests is a supreme inconsistency, and it’s becoming more and more widespread. Marriage is an inalienable human right, and it can’t be taken away by anyone; and what’s more, in 40 years of open debate the conservative wing of the Church has failed to come up with a convincing theological argument in favour of priestly celibacy.”

“The PP was a grand chap and he did a good deal of great work in our parish,” said a St Thomas More parishioner. “We were all very sorry to see him go, and we’re all going to do our best to give the new PP as good a welcome as we can.”

Any change to the Church’s teaching on mandatory celibacy for clergy would lead to the permission to marry before ordination rather than the freedom to marry once ordained.

{Copied from 'The Tablet' published on 13th December 2014.}

Cynthia's post about Sister Wendy reminded me of that lovely "Singing Franciscan" Father Francis Maple. He was based in Holywell in North Wales from 1975 till 2007 and sang all over the place and was in pop charts ( I think) collecting funds fro CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Aid).

Now appears to have retired to St Walberg's Friary in Preston. A very popular man in Holywell with his guitar and his lovely voice :-) :-)

Some monks are ordained but relatively few. Those who are ordained are able to celebrate the Mass.


I used to enjoy watching the Cadfael series with Derek Jacobi. In the story he had been a soldier at the crusades - been married and had a child and renounced it all before taking up his vocation as a monk.



I also enjoy watching Sister Wendy on TV. There was a great programme about her on Christmas day evening. She has aged considerably and now gets about with a motorised chair. She talked about her life and her vows.


Her life has been and still is interesting.......she now spends much of the day in contemplation and lives in a sort of pre-fab which has been specially built for her. She used to live in a caravan in the grounds of a convent but that more or less fell apart.


She goes to bed at 5pm and rises at midnight (which is common practice for nuns) and joins the other sisters for prayer and then goes back to bed.


Actually, she doesn't really join them, she sits on her own round a corner. If I remember rightly she is the last of her Order and the convent she is with is of a different Order.


Yes, she is slightly eccentric, immensely intelligent and extremely devoted. I do wonder if she is on the autistic spectrum but her sheer humility and love of her God absolutely shines from her. I find her a great inspiration.


I love it when she is on the One Show with Phil Tuffnell as he seems so fond of her when they are looking at great masterpieces of art.

But you dont have to be a virgin to join ,,,,,divorcees can become priests or nuns or monks.

:-)

I think monks and priests are different animals.

Not all monks are priests, I think most aren't in fact.

My understanding is that nuns and monks renounce all wordly things and take vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience.

ErrolSheep. if the rules on celibacy were changed and priests were allowed to marry, those in closed orders would probably have to leave the closed order if they wanted to marry.

Is joining a closed order, for a better description, not like joining a private club which would have a set of rules and regulations that a member has agreed to when they joined it?

I second John's wish to join a silent order ;-)

John some may agree with your comment about a silent order.

Back to topic - how can you have one rule for one and another for others?

I have never had a lithp !

How dare any one thuggetht tho.

:-D :-D I say nuffing

love the hat errol
reminds me of a master bakers hat

:-D :-D :-D

:-D

Errol. Good question. I suspect Cardinal O'Brien and others are suggesting parish priests could be married. In same way that Vicars can choose that option.

I think celibacy has always been a requirement of closed orders for both Anglicans and Catholics. But not for parish priests and it was interesting when someone found out last night that HALF the Roman Catholic priests in England in 1500 were married men.

Perhaps I should join a silent order :-D

closed or clothed? I don't understand your french accent with a lisp :-(

non, je ne regrette rien

sorry this beret keeps making me act all franco-thingy

Back on topic, I wonder what a strict order would make of this. In other words, it is all very well to debate whether a priest, for example, should be allowed to marry but how would that fit in with a closed order?

Not put that very well but I know what I mean

Sue. I am not bothered one way or another by reports or Genes decision to uphold them. At least I was true to myself, tried to get the discussion back to the thread subject and posted what I thought was a lovely prayer from someone like Cardinal Newman (who is not the most popular man on my side of the Christian field).

And I do believe that marriage of priests or celibacy of priests is something to be discussed by all types of Christians - and those who do not profess to be Christians but take a genuine interest in such a subject.

Kindly refer to Muffy's post at 12.09

If you don't like GR's decision contact them.

Tricky one I guess John - I surmise that maybe people have learned from someone that it is quite acceptable to go off at a tangent.
Maybe people just find this an easy thread to chat on, maybe they think it is a place to say what they think even though it may be off topic - who knows what has influenced that concensus?

Look at the thread title. This was happening when OFG posted his prayer.

Everyone seems to want to play on this thread. Is it just because it has been interesting, successful and has got loads of hits.

Why, when there are literally thousands of threads to play on do you want to use this? You could even start your own thread.

Have no idea why I was reported earlier today for posting a prayer for unity by Cardinal Newman after OFG posted the other prayer. His prayer was ignored, mine was reported. No idea why reports were upheld by Genes. Not that bothered - if reporting me gives pleasure, then feel free.