Institutional Discrimination, Misogyny and the Overkill of Women who get anywhere near the Priesthood.
Remember that Jesus said he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. (look it up-I know you have a concordance). Remember the cautioning to not add or subtract a word of scripture? In other words, don't just make stuff up and call it mandatory rules or paths to holiness when they are not. If it isn't in scripture, and in fact even contradicts it- it is wrong- even if it is 'tradition.' Because 'tradition' has been proven wrong over and over again. 'Tradition' isn't eternal truth. For a reason
So then-
What does the real law really say concerning married priesthood? The Cohen priesthood had to marry virgins. The Levitical ones had more slack-and in the 913 Judaic laws there are precise qualifications for what a wife should be-and there is a strong set of character attributes at the end of Proverbs concerning qualities of a wife. The New Testament clearly made it a requirement of 'Bishop' that they had to be the husband of one wife with their household in order, because who is going to listen to an adulterous mess who has no right telling anyone how to relate to God.
And then there are the clear recitations of what the rules on 'righteousness' are. Some things are definitionally breaches of 'righteousness' and not righteous -they are anti-righteous or 'sin.'
They include (and are repeated often-google it), the oppressing a neighbor, loaning at extortionate interest, taking bribes, etc.....and having conjugal relations with a woman during her period of menstruation. There is a cleansing required- a Mikvah - before relations may be had. Orthodox Jews follow it to this day- there was a Mikvah bath system central to all Jewish towns. I would not be surprised if the early Christian Jews doubled them as baptismal pools.
And there is no exemption or qualifier or 'grandfather' clause excusing priests from this- it applies equally to them. This law respects women- who are typically in a bit of discomfort during this time. It has also been cited as a family foundational pre-requisite to establishing relationships not solely on sexual exploitation or slavery because the men have to give it a break at least for a whole week out of the month and get sex off their minds.
The Latin church threw the baby out with the Mikvah waters. It also threw the women out.
It is not righteous. It is insane.
POSTSCRIPT
To further underscore the point: Jesus is constantly referred to in scripture as 'the bridegroom.' He makes analogies of the bridegroom coming late to see the seven virgins and check which ones trimmed their lamps. His first miracle was done while partying at a wedding reception where he was enjoying himself so much it wasn't 'his time' to do miracles, he first told his mother. Some surmise the wedding at Cana was actually his which is why he is constantly referred to as the bridegroom. He didn't say the church is his bride to turn all his priests into castratti womenish boy sopranos. He said he is the bridegroom, his church is the bride because of the highest central place marriage has foundationally in society which he wanted the church to mirror, not co-opt or pervert. Why would he, the great high priest, use the bridegroom metaphor if he wanted no priest to marry? It never crossed his mind. It wouldn't-those who didn't marry were either so aescetic like John the Baptist who had a special mission to do one thing crying in the wilderness announcing Jesus (and whom Jesus knew would be martyred)- and marriage was a central passage of adulthood in Jewish life- and still is. Christians and particularly Catholics have just made too much stuff up- and it is way way off track.
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