(06-20-2021 12:42 PM)BlueDragon Wrote:  

(06-20-2021 10:22 AM)mptnstr@44 Wrote:  

(06-20-2021 08:42 AM)BlueDragon Wrote:  

(06-20-2021 07:28 AM)Hernando Hills Tiger Wrote:  

(06-19-2021 10:28 AM)fsquid Wrote:  I wonder if the pedophie priests still get to take communion? I have zero issue with what they are doing to Biden, just maybe take care of your own house first.

What percentage of priest do you think are pedophiles?

I don’t think anyone knows the answer to that question. The bigger question in my mind is why the Catholic Church wants Priests to be celibate. Nowhere have I ever read in scripture that this is a requirement. Even the Levites who were of the Priestly order had wives. Furthermore in Jewish law unless you were married you weren’t allowed to be a teacher. I actually know the real reason and it nothing to do with religion but I just th out I’d throw it out there.

As a lifelong Catholic my understanding for the rationale behind unmarried priests is three fold, and more practical than biblical:

Divided Loyalties: If they had their own families their loyalty and time is divided. The Parish is supposed to be their family.

Support: It is the financial responsibility of a parish to support a pastor (and depending on parish size) asst and associate priests. If they are married and have families the financial costs to a parish increase proportionally.

Inheritance: If priests have families then there could be claims to Church property and thus inheritance issues.

Ding ding ding winner winner chicken dinner. Goes back to the Middle Ages when the Church actually did have to split up property between the family of the Priest and the Church. Church decided it wanted to keep the money instead.

Although I like your other answers as well. But as with everything else it always goes back to money and wealth.

Well, since the Bible clearly says it is impossible for someone to serve both God and mammon, then by taking mammon out of the equation, the church is doing what God says to do, and helping the priests in the process, which is a good thing, at least if you believe in the Bible. Those ministers who are married then logically would be going against God's word, by having their loyalties divided. So theose closest to the ideal stated in the Bible would then be celibate, unmarried, and serving God's church alone.

As Christ constantly referred to himslef as the Bridegroom, he also referred to and inidcated the Church was his bride, so to have more than one bride would be polygamous, which Christ clearly did not advocate for, but did advocate against. So to be a married Chritian minister would in the way described by jesusu himself in the Bible, be polygamous. Of course, some faiths that claim to be christian don't seem to have a problem with polygamy, but then they are not really christian in the first place as they contradict Christ's own directives.

Speaking of Chirts' own directives, quoted in every christian Bible, Jesus instructed his disciples to "go out and teach everything I have taught you." He did not ever say, to go out and have them read my book. He instructed the apostles to deliver the tradition of instruction and teaching to the world, and that whatever those men bound on earth would also be bound in heaven. Therefore, Jesus gave the apostles and their successors, the church leaders, the authority to make future decisions and address future issues with the authority of God. The root of the church's authority, then, comes from Christ himslef, not from some other man who might think he knows better than Jesus. Jesus said what he said and meant what he meant. And Jesus was faithful to death...100 per cent!