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A.W. R. Sipe: Exposing the Myth of Catholic Celibacy
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Re: A.W. R. Sipe: Exposing the Myth of Catholic Celibacy
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Re: A.W. R. Sipe: Exposing the Myth of Catholic Celibacy
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Oct 23 06 5:13 AM
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Those who live in a hedonistic world can't understand celibacy. The Lord said, "Come out of her, My people" which means....this hedonistic world!
CATHOLIC PRACTICE - Priests forbidden to marry.
BIBLE CITATION FROM AN ANTI-CATHOLIC - [Contention that it is from the devil to prohibit the good of marriage] "Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the last times some will turn away from the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and demonic instructions, through the hypocrisy of liars with branded consciences. They forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected when received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the invocation of God in prayer" (1 Timothy 14:1-4).
CATHOLIC RESPONSE - These words refer to a false asceticism and not to the practices of Catholic Christianity. The early Church and well into the Patristic period, had to deal with cults and movements which made all sorts of exaggerated claims and required various austire practices. Some urged a return to Jewish dietary laws. Others wanted to go even further with fasting and abstinence, perpetually destroying joy in the goods of creation.
There were even movements which urged strict celibacy upon all the members as the only way to enlightenment and salvation.
The Catholic position is quite different. Our use of fasting and abstinence is not perpetual and it is not a rejection of certain foods as unclean or unworthy of man. Rather, their absence, to coin a cleche, is to make the heart grow fonder. It is precisely because something like meat is good that we might temporarily abstain. Jesus himself fasted and prayed in the desert and alluded to it in the future as something his followers would do. As for marriage, Catholics believe that Christ raised it up to a level of a sacrament, a special sacred sign of his relationship as the bridegroom to his bride, the Church. It is a mysterious means of encountering the Lord himself and receiving grace. Obviously, if such is the Catholic view, we would not be seeking to degrade it by our practice of celibacy. Priests and religious vow celibacy freely, not because marriage is bad, but because it is so good. Celibacy becomes a wonderful gift, freely embraced, as a sacrifice for God and his holy people. Jesus was celibate. St. Paul not only practiced it but encouraged it. The celibate priest becomes a sign of contradiction of the kingdom of Christ to a hedonistic world. It is not a rejection of love, but a selfless abandonment to divine love as manifested in service to God's people, the Church. It is not a calling for everyone, just as not everyone is called to priesthood or consecrated life. The majority of people seek holiness in marriage and family life.
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(I copied this from the web a while ago, but didn't save the url for it. I'm sure you can find it if you want it.)
God bless you
"Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
~St. Augustine
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