Tracie said:
Hi. I'm a Christian, but not Catholic. I posted this in another place, but then I realized there was a place for Catholics and thought I'd repost here.
One day I was just looking online about how to explain my faith as a Christian (Protestant I suppose I have to say) to a person who is Catholic. Well, I ran across some site by this guy who used to be Catholic and I was looking around.
I found this passage which I found to be interesting:
1Timothy 4
1The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
Ok, the forbid people to marry part is obvious. The order to abstain from certain foods thing I think was presented as a Lent thing (which I know nothing about), but from what I do know a person is supposed to give something up in sacrifice and some choose meat, but I doubt that anyone is forbidding them to eat meat.
So, anyway, I was wondering what some thoughts on this might be relating to priests not being allowed to marry. Also, am I understanding Lent correctly?
Thanks!
Tracie
Hi Tracie
I hope I can be of some help. I am, I guess you would say, and ex-protestant who is converting to Catholicism. I come from a background in Eastern Orthodoxy in my childhood. Both my grandfather and uncle are priests. I mention that as it has given me a direct view into the family life of a married priest which helps me to understand the various positions.
First, I would like to share something I have discovered about such sites as you may have found, those put up by those who were once Catholic but now converted to Protestantism - I have not run into one site like this that does not fit what I am about to say, and I have looked at many sites on the net operated by ex-Catholics. Catholics, in general, experienced poor catachesis in the last century . . . those of us who convert to Catholicism from Protestantism usually do so only after significant struggle and education. It is not an emotional decision, it has a strong intellectual side to it . .but in the end there has to be faith. So those of us converting many times run into the situation where we actually know more, and many times much more, about the Catholic faith - especially the 'why's" - than those who were born and raised Catholics all their lives. Every time I have encountered such a site, I find it to be full of error's in understanding exactly what the Catholic Church really teaches or believes.
You have to be very careful as they will sound very "authoritative", especially since they were Catholics - one would think they must know what they are talking about, after all, they used to be Catholic! But no - knowing what they are talking about does not flow from simply being raised a Catholic, even if they were catechized for 12 years and passed with flying colors. I know several people like this who really and truly believe they really understand Catholicism but now hate it with a vengeance. But what they say is full of error; however no-one can reason with them.
Kudos to you for coming to a resource like this place for more information!
The passage that you quoted above, that is most often used to attack the practice of priestly celibacy in Roman Catholicism (and as someone already posted this applies only to the Latin, or Western Rite of the Church), really has nothing to do with priestly celibacy at all.
What Paul is writing about, as someone pointed out above, are those who foribd
anyone to marry.
Various heretical sects have popped up throughout the history of Christianity. One of them, as mentioned above, were the gnostics . . these were those who taught that Christ did not actually come in the flesh, they taught that the god of the Old Testament was an evil god, and the God of the New Testament was a good God. They taught that this evil god created the physical world to entrap the spirits created by the good god, and so all matter is evil . . and so Christ could not possible have had a physical body. There were 2 main sects within this group. One embraced a strict ascetic lifestyle and a denial of all things relating to this physical world as much as possible, including marriage - and perhaps especially marriage as the offspring would be more entrapped spirits. The other main sect embraced a hedonistic life style. As you can see, they fit Paul's description of those who would abandon the faith and pay head to lying and deceiving spirits . . .
So when Paul is talking about those who forbid to marry, he is talking about groups who have lost their understanding of the truth, and who do not understand the purpose of marriage and denounce it in general, not those who choose a celibate lifestyle to serve God more fully. Even Paul, when speaking of marriage expressed his own celibate state as something good and to be desired:
1Co 7:1 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. .........
1Co 7:7 For I would that all men were even as I myself. . . . . . . .
1Co 7:8 I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.
. . . . . . . . . . .
1Co 7:32 But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:
1Co 7:33 But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.
1Co 7:34 There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
1Co 7:35 And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.
The entire 7th Chapter of Romans speaks to this issue. And Paul is speaking to the Church of Corinth, not just to those in positions of leadership. So what is said in the entire chapter needs to be read with that in mind.
Being celibate is not wrong. Having observed first hand how extremely difficult it can be to be both a husband,father and priest, I have to say I agree strongly with Paul's words, especially inverses 32-35, above.
The Roman Catholic Church has not always required celibacy of their priests. But both the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox have required that Bishops be celibate. In both the Roman Catholic Church when it has allowed married priests (and there
are married priests allowed today in the Western Rite in certain situations) and the Eastern Orthodox Church, if a priest is married, they have to be married before they are ordained. Once they are ordained, they are not allowed to marry.
This is something that the Church currently requires of its priests in the Western Rite (what we commonly mean when we say the Roman Catholic Church) for the good of its priests and the church . . it is something that can change. But what we have right now in the Roman Catholic Church is how it has chosen to approach this issue. The Eastern Rite Churches and the Eastern Orthodox Church has chosen to approach it a different manner. One is not more right than the other.
I could share more on this, but I don't want to make this too long. I hope it has helped.
Peace in Him!
