Once a Priest Always a Priest.
Calm down everyone. The vow of perpetual priestly celibacy violated does not violate or invalidate the ontological change that made him a priest. As any Christian he is still empowered to cast out demons, and drink any deadly thing and it cannot hurt him. His smile can still lift a heavy heart, his kind words can still heal a broken heart, his persuasion can still introduce people to the saving power of Jesus. He is a priest. Whether he is teaching in a Catholic college, consecrating at the altar, hearing confessions in a box or a coffee shop, or serving in a soup kitchen- he is still a priest.
Jesuit James Martin, S.J. indicated that the perpetual mandatory celibacy is "a thousand year old tradition." It is one that is a church institutional accommodation- it is not something ever mandated by Christ. Christ never mandated that any priest should have to perpetually be celibate. Note that this is a world of difference from the chastity requirement- chastity is a mandatory requirement FOR ALL TIME FOR ALL PEOPLE who are not "lawfully" married.
In 1st Corinthians (go find it) Paul exhorts in explaining why he isn't going to be a burden on anyone and was a "tentmaker" earning his own living and living a single life while preaching in spite of the fact that -hey, don't I have the "right" to have a Christian wife accompany me like Cephas (Peter), "the brothers of the Lord" and "all the other Apostles." Clearly, the norm, the rule, was that those Apostles, the "brothers" of the Lord and Peter (whose mother in law was cured by Jesus) had WIVES. Paul calls this a "right." Obviously this was the norm, the rule and the predominant practice because all the first Apostles were with small exception Jews. Jews consider it a sacred obligation to "be fruitful and multiply" as a primordial commandment to perpetuate the race. The mandatory celibacy of the priesthood was imposed institutionally rigidly around the 11th or 12th Century- as a response to issues involving property, land, and power and was not originally well rooted or founded theologically.
That said, there is a profound witness of Chastity in the celebite priesthood- which has led people to salvation. It is repeatedly written in scripture that "fornicators" and the "unchaste" shall not enter the Kingdom of God. At the end of the book of Revelation where there is a list of
those who shall be left out of the Kingdom, the "unchaste" are left outside the gates as surely as the "murders" and "liars." The profundity of this is sometimes lost on our over-sexed culture that considers casual sexual indiscretion or sin as little more serious than overeating. The effect on the soul of sexual impurity or immorality has in modern western culture been masqued or obliterated from consciousness- our sensibilities are dulled and diluted. So an institution that preserves the celibacy of the priesthood is a great witness in today's culture. I personally found it originally very refereshing that there was a safe place to go to in my 20s where I could be sure I would find a familial love that didn't involve any sexual politics and where male figures expressed care and love without hitting on me. It allows a flowering of personality not experienced when one is constantly on the defensive fending off propositions.
But there is also in today's culture a lack of witness for "traditional marriage" or good healthy sound marriage involving a man and a woman creating a family - a marriage that works, is function not dysfunctional, and that lasts as it is rooted in Love- which is, after all, God.
So while I agree with Fr. Martin that the church might look at the mandatory celibacy and priestly marriage option again because there is only 1 priest for every 5,000 Catholics on average in Africa, I also think that the Church now needs to be a strong witness for healthy traditional marriage and not frustrate God's love.
When you persecute Love you persecute God, because God is love.
When you persecute women who love priests because you see them as only temptations or evil distractions from the celibacy obligation, you persecute Christ- because God is love.
A good piece of Roquefort blue/green cheese has just the right amount of blue/green bacteria in it to be a healthy piece of Roquefort. If it is completely overrun in blue/green bacteria so it is covered in black and overrun in bacteria- it is no longer cheese, it is a wad of bacteria which if eaten could cause someone serious illness. So too, the celibacy in the priesthood- the right balance is something that has to be achieved, which is achievable because of the Holy Spirit's gifting of those he calls to celibacy to remain celibate- and those he calls to marriage- to live IN HIS LOVE which IS GOD in a married state with a woman. God is Love. It is the most basic truth of Christianity- God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son so that whomever should believe in his name and is called according to his purposes shall be saved.
The Church has to ask itself- is it chasing out GOD in the name of Celibacy? Celibacy does not save, Jesus does and Jesus is Love. The fact that celibate people can be hateful anti-loving unChristian people is nowhere more apparent than in those who think all they have to do is rip apart any Pro-Choice people as being intrinsically sexually sloven to be in good standing with God- a point made by Doug Kmeic yesterday in so many words. Jesus is Love. It bears repeating because it is a point well lost.
God is Love, and no man has greater love than this that he lay down his life for his friends.
Father Cutie laid down his life as a priest administrator in the Catholic Church and traded it for more of God's Love, for the Love of his Life- and this is where he lives in God. We should all bless him, and thank him for his courage. Further, we should all take note that regardless of whether he wants to be the anti-celibacy priest or not, he has taught us all a lesson. When you persecute Love you persecute Christ. Because God is Love.
How can you say you Love God when you don't Love your neighbor?
Seriously, yes, I'm talking to you- How can you say the Love of God is in you when you don't love your neighbor.
The Greatest commandment is this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and LOVE your neighbor as yourself. This is the summation of all the Law and all the prophets.
There is a verse in Revelation that indicates that there will in the end times be those who kept themselves "unstained from women" who number a specific number 140,000- which is the exact number of those pulled from the 12 tribes- these pertain to Jews- not Gentiles saved by Grace, by the blood of the lamb Jesus. the 140,000 were the select elect pulled from the Jewish tribes who were Virgin males (like John the Baptist- and the least of those in the Kingdom is greater). There is nothing in this verse that indicates that this is a non-marriage requirement for catholic or christian priests. It specifically references Jews pulled in equal numbers from each of the 12 tribes. You have to read the whole book to get it in context.
The issue of sexual immorality or unchastity is often confused with the issue of mandatory lifetime non-marital celibacy. They are totally different things. Cutie did sin grievously in living a double life ( a lie) and engaging in unchaste sexual contact outside marriage while witnessing to the opposite. This was sexual immorality- no excuse-which he can and should only make right by marrying whom he introduced as his "fiance." There is clearly a requirement that if you fall in love, and are carnally familially sexually bound to a woman, she is your wife and you need to seek the Lord's blessing to make it right in a "legal" or "lawful" marriage. It used to be called "making an honest woman of her" but it really makes an honest man also.
After the long debate between Paul and Peter regarding what it took to be a Christian, and whether it required first converting to Judaism and adherence to all the Jewish laws and traditions, it was finally decided that there are three hallmarks of what made a Christian in terms of adherence to behavioral laws: 1. Do not eat anything sacrificed to idols 2. Do not eat blood of animals (because the only "blood" allowed to be consumed would be the saving Blood of Jesus) and 3. avoid sexual impurity, unchastity, immorality or "unlawful" marriage, i.e. fornication outside a blessed "lawful" marriage.
So Cutie's witness has been compromised- but because God is a God of Love who gives him AND HIS GIRLFRIEND a future and a hope, he needs to marry her now.
http://johnshuster.com/thirtynine_popes.htm
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