Priests and Marriage

[jackofallgeeks]

I'm curious what, if any, opinions you guys have on Married Priests. I have to admit that there's some validity to the "if they could marry, more men would become priests" line, except for a few points. Most directly, anyone who's had to work two different positions at work knows that doing so degrades your work in both areas; that's the strongest argument against married priests that I've found. Trying to be both husband and priest, neither of which is 'easy' nor should be secondary, is far from ideal. Part of me also thinks that perhaps men who would otherwise be priests have the wrong priorities: why would being able to marry change things? What does that say about how you're treating this? I might argue that it's men buying into what society tells them they need to be happy. Life isn't easy, and every path in life has it's challenges and difficulties.

Anyone have input, either for or against?

Comments

[elwenlassriel.livejournal.com]

Part of the calling to the priesthood is that they are marrying the church because they are in the place of Christ, the bridegroom, giving their whole life in service of the church, the bride. The vocation of a religious, devout married man is to raise religious devout children, as well as to devout is whole life to them and his wife. Part of this is having a job to support them and the like. The calling of a priest is to serve the church and be a spiritual father to all of its people. It’s not simply a job, just as being a husband and father isn’t an occupation. These two very important vocations cannot coexist because they are contradictory. One cannon both give their whole being to their family and their whole being to the service of the church, for we only have but one being to give.

(I know these are all kind of random thoughts, I simply don’t have the time or energy to make a coherent argument)