I go to a parish often that some might call somewhat 'preppy' where the nun wears a suit,
sometime a nice donated designer suit and the priests wear what you would see anyone
wearing at a yaght club sometimes without their collar, because that is what the rest
of the people they serve wear. It is an accommodation to more easily reach people and
not put distance unnecessarily between them.
There are other parishes which are largely hispanic where the social hours and festival events
are met with the finest TexMex foods, because that pleases the people and accommodates
their tastes. Why serve up Lasagna if they prefer Quesadillas?
These people listen to priests who look like traditional priests and have a firmly fastened white collar on. If you sent one of my yaght going pretty priests to them they might not think he conveys the same authority.
If you served up Foie Gras, frogs legs and ducks livers to a parish of El Salvadorans or Guatemalans they would think you are trying to poison them or at least, that's not particularly
nice.
The communication of God's love for people is culture sensitive.
The Albigensians who followed an ancient form of dualistic gnostic denial of matter's worth, deeming-- a la platonic realm of the forms, --the material world the creation of the evil master of the universe and the spirit world only the creation of God thus disdained procreation and marriage wouldn't listen to a married priest. So for the sake of 'the kingdom' then, it is appropriate to not be married to missionize to such a group. That particular group. As is the case in lots of institutionalizations, a practice becomes a dogma then even a theology. It is improper extension of an accommodation into a universality or worse, some universal truth that can then be exploited for institutional ends.
It is not however a proper or effective communication of God's love to win hearts, minds or souls, of communities prospering in marriage in procreation to plant a priest with firm convictions that the 'kingdom of god' is served only in celibacy. It is a theological mis-transplantation.
It is a theological mis-transplantation that has gone around the world.
Until a former Augustinian Monk decided he had enough and knew it was a crock, and half the Christian world threw it off as inappropriate-you know who he is- Martin Luther.
Stop serving Lasagna instead of Quesadillas, he essentially felt. And he married a former Nun and had five children, and started a reform movement that claims now half of Christendom in some denominational form.
Bout time someone woke up there in Citta Vaticani
Lets assume that the verse in Matthew has not be tailed retranscribed by the dominican scribes and is an accurate translation of the eunichs for the kingdom principle that some can accept. It still does not mandate the universality of cross the board eunichfication of everyone serving the kingdom as priests. There is an appropriateness qualifier implicit in it. No one told the Ethiopian eunich that he was the new model of priesthood. We don't even know his name. He isn't a saint because he is a eunich.
Mutiliation is what the prophets of false Baal were famous for. God had Elijah slay them all.
It mocks circumcism demonically.
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