OK, I admit it!
Sometimes I can be like a dog with a bone – I just can’t drop it! Unfortunately I think it’s genetic. I remember my grandfather would mutter around the house and in his shop about things that had been said or done to him that still ticked him off. He was the kind of guy who would let it slide in public, but on the inside it would be killing him. I’m kind of like that too, although that’s one of the reasons for having a blog! The perfect place to get that out of my system instead of letting it churn inside!
So I’m getting back to the attack against me earlier this week – (you knew I would!). This will be a 3 parter.
Jesus was mean to the type of person who is straight and married and enjoys conjugal relations but tells priests and gays they must be perfectly chaste even though you have no experience trying to commit to life-long celibate chastity. Sure, celibate chastity is beautiful, but if you haven’t tried it, you have no right to say who is called to it or how they should live it.
Well first off, I don’t tell young men that they have to become priests to be celibate. I encourage my sons and their young Catholic friends to consider the priesthood and to be open to God’s will in their life. That’s not the same thing as “saying who is called.” Hopefully, if someone is open God’s will in their life, they’ll find their own calling. No one is holding a gun to their heads to join the celibate priesthood, least of all me! Aren’t we all “called” to be open to God’s will and to encourage each other to do that.
Secondly, I have no strong views one way or the other on married priests. I recognize that some of the Eastern rites have them, and that some of the married Anglican priests who converted were allowed to take Holy Orders and are now married, Catholic priests. That’s fine with me.
AND, if the church ever said that all of the priests could be married, I would try to be as helpful and supportive as I could to their wives and family
I just wouldn’t encourage my daughters to marry one! And as a married woman with children I DO have experience with living in a Catholic sacramental marriage and I predict that living in such a marriage with an ordained priest (which is much different than a Protestant minister) would be a very difficult life. You would be the wife of a man living two vocations, and I don’t think the marriage would always be the top priority. Mr. Pete has his own business, which is not a vocation, but it still at times, HAS to be his priority over the family. The vocation call of a priest would be 100 times that!! So from the perspective of a married woman, I would not want that for my daughters.
On the other hand, I do think that couples who are out of the childbearing years with kids on their own might do fine in a priesthood ministry. Mr. Pete and I talk occasionally about his pursuing the deaconate in later years. I think if it were a “season of life thing” that might work out better.
But lastly, Mr. Cecil says that I have no right to tell priests or gays to live celibately. I humbly thank him for the power he assumes I have in the church, but it is not I who tell priests or gays that. It is the Catholic church, and the leaders in that church who have that power via their ordination and apostolic succession. They ARE celibate men and they are the ones who support the practice of celibacy in the priesthood, and encourage all of the rest of us to live out chastity as it relates to our station in life whether that be married, single life, or holy orders. As a Catholic lay woman, I merely point to the Jesus’ church and say, “Do as He says.”
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