Priestly Celibacy (II)

Written by my good friend, VoxClamantis, owner and creator of FishEaters, the best place on the web for learning about Catholicism, and owner of FishEaters Forum, the best place on the web for Catholics to gather.

Fact: St. Peter and some other of the Apostles were married,

Fact: Once called by Christ, they embraced sexual continence, refraining from sexual relations with their wives.

Fact: Like Old Covenant priests (see Leviticus), New Covenant priests refrain from sexual relations before offering the Sacrifice.

Fact: Because priests offer the Sacrifice daily, perpetual sexual continence is called for.

Fact: Because perpetual sexual continence is called for, celibacy (not being given to marriage) became the norm.

Fact: This (perpetual sexual continence) is the way of apostolic perfection, which the Roman Church preserves intact by insisting on celibacy.

Fact: The ordained priesthood is radically different from the royal priesthood of believers. Holy Orders is a Sacrament that leaves an indelible mark on the soul of the recipient, who acts in persona Christi to offer the Son to the Father. Laypeople do not have this mark, authority, or power.

Fact: That Orthodox Churches have married priests is a falling away from apostolic perfection, as is their acceptance of remarriage after divorce, etc.

Fact: That Orthodox and Eastern Churches are lax in this area is no good reason for the Roman Church to become lax in this area.

Fact: The more watered-down priestly discipline is, the more banal the liturgy, the less that is expected of priests, the more the sanctuary is swarming with girls and women, and the more the priests see themselves and are treated as as a cross between glorified social workers and sacraments-dispensers that give entertaining homilies, the less good, masculine men will be drawn to the priesthood.

Fact: Not being married and not having heterosexual sex do not cause homosexuality or pedophilia.

Fact: Marriage and heterosexual sex do not cure homosexuality or pedophilia.

Fact: Unorthodox priests sometimes dissimulate by conflating the terms "chastity" (the proper use of the sexual faculty), "sexual continence" (refraining from sex altogether), and "celibacy" (not being given to marriage). That is, some will loudly proclaim that they're celibate while not being at all chaste, and because too many wrongly use the word "celibate" to mean "sexually continent," they are misled. Everyone is called to chastity. For the married, chastity can include sexual relations. For the unmarried, chastity requires sexual continence. Priests are called to be chaste by being sexually continent, and they are to be celibate (to not marry). The priestly promise of celibacy morally demands sexual continence. Get these terms straight.

Fact: The cures for the problem of the homosexualization of a too-large percentage of the clergy are: 1) to have orthodox gatekeepers and good spiritual directors at our seminaries, men who follow Church discipline in not ordaining homosexuals; 2) to return to the traditional liturgy, traditional sacramental rites, and orthodoxy; 3) to treat homosexuality (the inclination, not homosexual acts) as a disorder, not a sin, and to treat homosexuals with dignity and charity so that homosexuals are out of the closet and unashamed for having a disorder they did not choose. The answer is not to further corrupt traditional practices.