Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Catholic Clerical Celibacy; Hypocrisy or Idiocy? News Flash: Priest Professes Love for Single Mom

The ANNOTICO Report

 

While the Hierarchy of the Catholic Church would want members to believe that one cannot serve two masters ( God and your Spouse), or that one would be distracted by Marriage and Children from their Principle Mission, and therefore Celibacy is Necessary.  

 

Worse, some Church leaders have started to give out the Impression that celibacy was of apostolic origin -- that it had been built in at the beginning.

 

In Truth, prior to the Middle Ages, it was allowable for Catholic Priests to have Multiple Wives, and Mistresses (Concubines).

 

Actually, the MAIN REASON Celibacy was introduced by the First Lateran Council (1123 AD) was STRICTLY FINANCIAL !!!!!!!!

With more Decentralized Power at that time, Priests and Bishops were acquiring great PERSONAL WEALTH (from those trying to buy their way into Heaven), and the Churchmen were then passing on this wealth through Inheritance to their Heirs. The Church felt it was being deprived of great Resources, and therefore Outlawed Priestly Inheritance, AND  MARRIAGE !!!!!

 

As Proof of the Total Irrelevance of Celibacy to Dedicated Religious Leaders, one has only to look to the Protestant, and Jewish Religions, who have NOT suffered because of married Priests or Rabbis, but have THRIVED !!!!!!! 

 

Further Sadly, Up until recent times the Best and the Brightest Sons went into the Church. In the Catholic Church, their genes were not propagated, and there was a "Dumbing Down" in the community . In the Protestant and Jewish Faiths with the Best and Brightest encouraged to be married and have children, there was instead a "Smarting Up". Also there were Religious leaders that were more personally  "in touch with" the practical problems of marriage, and could therefore provide wiser counsel.

 

Then again , in the Protestant  and Jewish faiths, there are NOT the Widespread Violations of Celibacy, the Convent Scandals, or the Pedophile Scandals.

 

The Catholic Church because of it's Celibacy stance, becomes particularly vulnerable/attractive to the "wholesale" infiltration of homosexuals, (who the Catholic Church rails against) who would choose the priesthood in an attempt to deny or hide their natural sexual orientation.

 

Eventually,with celibacy being so unnatural regardless if one is born heterosexual, homosexual or bi, Few can remain celibate, and then only because of some physical problem). Therefore, the consequences with Hetro Sexual Priests are Sex with Female Married/Unmarried Parishioners, Nuns, Prostitutes., And with Homo Sexual Priests, Sex with Fellow Priests and young Male Alter Boys.    

 

 And Finally while the Catholic Church is losing priests at an appalling rate, and finding it difficult to recruit new ones, there is No such problem in the Protestant or Jewish Faiths.

 

The Catholic Church is it's own worst enemy!!!

A Brief History of Celibacy in the Catholic Church

First Century; Peter, the first pope, and the apostles that Jesus chose were, for the most part, married men.                                                      

Second and Third Century; Age of Gnosticism: A person cannot be married and be perfect. However, most priests were married.          

Fourth Century  325-Council of Nicea: decreed that after ordination a priest could not marry. 
                       385-Pope Siricius left his wife in order to become pope. Decreed that priests may no longer sleep with their wives.           

Fifth Century      401-St. Augustine wrote, "Nothing is so powerful in drawing the spirit of a man downwards as the caresses of a woman"  

 Sixth Century     567-2nd Council of Tours: any cleric found in bed with his wife would be excommunicated for a year                                           
                       580-Pope Pelagius II: Did not  bot her married priests as long as they did not hand over church property to wives or children.
                       590-604-Pope Gregory "the Great": All sexual desire is sinful in itself (meaning that sexual desire is intrinsically evil?).

Seventh Century; France: documents show that the majority of priest were married.                                                                                                               

Eighth Century; St. Boniface reported to the pope that in Germany almost no bishop or priest was celibate.                                                          

Ninth Century;    836-Council of Aix-la-Chapelle: Admitted abortions and infanticide in convents/monasteries to cover up uncelibate clerics.
St. Ulrich, argued that the only way to purify the church from the excesses of .celibacy was to permit priests marry.     

Eleventh Century 1045-Pope Boniface IX dispensed himself from celibacy and resigned in order to marry.
                          1074-Pope Gregory VII said anyone to be ordained must first pledge celibacy with their wives.
                          1095-Pope Urban II had priests’ wives sold into slavery, children were abandoned. 

Twelfth Century
                          1123-Pope Calistus II: First Lateran Council decreed that clerical marriages were invalid.
                          1139-Pope Innocent II: Second Lateran Council confirmed the previous council’s decree

Fifteenth Century; Transition; 50% of priests are married and accepted by the people.                                                                                               

Sixteenth Century 1545-63-Council of Trent states that celibacy and virginity are superior to marriage.

=http://www.futurechurch.org/fpm/history.htm

See Also: Popes who were Married; Popes who were the Sons of other Popes; Popes who had Illegitimate Children after 1139

PRIEST CONFESSES LOVE FOR SEPARATED MUM

(ANSA) - Padua, 

August 28, 2007  

A Catholic priest in  northern Italy has revived the debate about clerical celibacy by confessing to have fallen in love with a separated mother.

Father Sante Sguotti of Monterosso near Padua told  reporters on Tuesday that his beloved's name was Laura and  that he wanted them to become officially engaged in December. "I have known Laura for more than eight years, but not  in the biblical sense. I am in love with this woman and I helped her choose her child's name," the priest said.

But he stressed that their relationship would remain a chaste one because he did not want to jeopardise his job."Canon law does not forbid a priest to fall in love or become engaged in a celibate manner. I want to remain in the Church and so I will obey the celibacy rule," Sguotti said.

He also urged other priests who were in love to "come  forward" and break their silence.

Sguotti triggered alarm among his superiors earlier this month by implying that he was the father of his girlfriend's one-year-old child. The local bishop subsequently told Sguotti he expected him to quit, to the dismay of most of the priest's 800 parishioners, who are understanding of his predicament.

But Sguotti said on Tuesday that he had been joking and had simply wanted to provoke debate about the need for priestly celibacy.

"This is the first time I have been in love since becoming a priest. I believe it's a fundamental stage in life. A person can't be a good priest or nun or anything else in life unless he has experienced love at least once," he said.” Life in the seminary, where all contact with women is forbidden and you are banned from going to bars, swimming pools and movies, is wrong because it warps your personality," Sguotti continued.

He also argued that the Church's celibacy requirement meant that "only the most closed and narrow-minded priests, the least humane ones, get ahead”.” The Church is losing the best part of itself," Sguotti  said.

The Vatican has never shown any sign of altering its long tradition of demanding celibacy from priests, despite calls for a rethink from dissidents in the US and elsewhere.

Late last year Pope Benedict XVI rejected a request from excommunicated Zambian archbishop Emmanuel Milingo to accept married priests into the Catholic Church.

"The value of the choice of priestly celibacy was reaffirmed, in line with Catholic tradition," a Vatican statement said after the pope discussed the issue with top aides.

The statement came after the once-married Milingo wrote an open letter to the pope, urging immediate steps to allow married priests in the Catholic Church.

He said the Church was in "dire straits" because of a vocation crisis and that allowing priests to marry would help resolve the shortage.

Milingo has founded an association of like-minded clerics to promote his cause. The organisation - called Married Priests Now! - says about 150,000 Catholic priests have left the Church in order to marry.

Monsignor Milingo was excommunicated last September  after he presided over an unauthorised ceremony in Washington to consecrate four married priests as bishops.The elderly churchman came close to excommunication in 2001 by defecting to a sect and marrying a Korean acupuncturist. That time he was persuaded to return to the church and to abandon his wife by the late John Paul II.

The first pope, Saint Peter, as well as many subsequent  popes, bishops, and priests during the church's first 270 years were in fact married men and often fathers.

http://www.lifeinitaly.com/news/news-detailed.asp?newsid=6417

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