Until they face it honestly, biblically and intelligently.
The married priesthood option. There is a contingent of people who think they are doing the Lord's work by ridiculing, demonizing, demeaning, shunning, harassing, and abasing people who believe that Roman Catholic Priests should be given the same "right" to marry that Saint Paul said was a right "don't I have a RIGHT to travel with a wife like all the apostles?" which he declined, and as Byzantine, Eastern Rite, Orthodox and all Protestants have. Indeed Saint Peter on whom the church was founded had a wife, Jesus knew as much because he cured her mother--St. Peter's mother- in law. As it flatly says in scripture that it is a commandment that any Bishop be married to one wife (not NONE or three) it is a fair assumption that Peter was given the keys precisely because he was a good married family guy.
This is a little like the Dominican Inquisition in which people thought mass slaughter of Jews was the Lord's work. The meanest most vicious people you ever want to run into hold the clerical celibacy close to them like someone were suggesting something immoral by proposing that they be given free will to decide if they want to marry.
Click HERE for
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/us/married-roman-catholic-priests-are-testing-a-tradition.html?pagewanted=all
When I posted that article on facebook I got a like from someone who wanted to be a priest but was torn because he also wanted to be a father and husband to one wife- like the bible says is a qualification to being a Bishop. These are good people who don't get to be priests because the pull is strong in both directions. In my lifetime I know about ten guys like this. Its possibly a God given call in both directions. I am not God but they think so. The Roman Church excludes that, so my friend would have to be Episcopalian to answer his dual call or settle for Deacon. And guess what- an Episcopalian Priest with a family can after all become a Roman one with full conjugal rights to have a wife, and naturally bear children. None of that is inconsistent with the priesthood in the protestant world. Neither was it inconsistent in Jesus' world. Its not a rule Jesus established and for the first 1,000 years of Christendom it wasn't the law in the catholic church either. When you remind people of this they think you are somehow trying to subvert the Spirit rather than strengthen it.
The odd thing is the ignorant virulent older catholic women who ferociously hold to the myth of this non optional lifetime celibacy as virtue such that that somehow suggesting that this is the biblical norm is immoral or worse crazy talk from a demented mind. Even Catholic Melkite priests in the Middle East, closer to the biblical cultural norm are allowed to be married.
The head shrinking job on congregations in the West is really a mind-F. Staggering the scriptural ignorance that some of the adherents display and general lack of cultural appreciation for the other half of Christendom. Do they really think that Jesus needs the continent sperm of a male priest to transubstantiate himself through the priest? Who do they think would develop such a wierd theological fiction when JPII said celibacy is not ontologically necessary for the priesthood.
But for these ladies don't confuse them with theology. They like the pray, pay and obey model when they can call upon a priest as their favorite pet for favors and keep them tied to their purse strings.
The vilification of the people who want reform is the real scandal. Like my friend who settles for people calling him "brother" until he can figure out whether he wants a wife or a job as a priest.
For the rest of the ladies who lunch- get a life honey, really.
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