The Surprise

of This Papacy

  stated Fr. Tom Reese to a packed standing room only crowd at Holy Trinity may be the mandatory celibacy.

"I would rather have good Christians than bad Priests" said Fr. Reese quoting the Pope.

This Pope doesn't suffer well fools, or those priests trying to live double lives and compromised integrity and honesty by having secret, winky wink, 'housekeepers', 'house mothers' aka priest-whores, or girlfriends on the side that they romantically woo  with dishonorable intentions.  Traumatizing women, emotional serial adultery,
isn't part of the job description. Honorable means marriage. Out in the open, ring and all, so the 'community' can see what its about and bless it.  Here is a hint that something is off the rails- if the widow woman who folds the programs and greets people at the door of the church starts yelling at people like its her house, something is romantically off the rails there--or the dame needs to check herself into rehab.

This Pope wants integrity and honesty. He wants priests to be decent men not spoiled adolescents.

   This Pope talks a lot about living what you preach. If you preach love, be Love as God is Love.
It isn't love to demean women or disrespect them. Your little white collar isn't a license to be a jerk to anyone and should always reflect Jesus whose shoes you stand in. There is not one example anywhere in scripture of Jesus being rude to, insulting, disrespectful of or demeaning to women. He was exactly the opposite. If you are in your collar for any other reason than to be Jesus in the world you are a fraud, a phoney, a pretender and a hypocrite worse than a Pharisee.

According to Reese there is a difference between a vow of chastity and a promise of celibacy. Jesuits and orders take the former and diocesene priests take the later. Not sure why promises can be broken, but there would be a reason if a man fell in love with and wanted to marry a woman.

This Pope says if you get a woman pregnant and you are a Priest, you must leave.
Because the child deserves a father present.

    There is no reason why Diocesene priests couldn't marry, unlike order priests living in community where the logistics would become unwieldy.  Its a canon law, not found anywhere in scripture (Jewish rabbis all can marry) and married priests are in the Eastern Catholic church already and with those converts from Episcopalianism. Married Priests make sense for Diocesene priests. They make a world of sense in fact if you understand how to value women and what they would add to the mix.