Freethought & Rationalism Archive

IRON MAN · 04-18-2006, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WCH

It has this to do with it: that those who are gay will be more likely to choose such a vocation.

Remember, Catholic priests must be celibate. Most people don't want to be celibate. Therefore, the clergy appeals most to those few for whom marriage is a less attractive option. This includes asexuals, closeted homosexuals, the impotent and the just plain ugly. If you either don't want a wife, or know you wouldn't be able to get a wife anyway, being a priest doesn't seem that bad anymore.

What the statistic actually is I have no idea, but I would be willing to bet that any state of being which reduces one's likelihood to marry will be more common among Catholic priests than among the general population. Homosexuality just happens to be such a thing.

Interesting to hear someone suggest that. I always suspected that deciding on the priesthood was a retreat from masculinity, (for many people).

When you are a boy, and you look at the responsibilities of being a man it all seems a bit daunting. It seems to me that a young boy could consciously decide to avoid that responsibility since he is old enough to be conscious of it by the time it becomes an issue.

In Christian society, (and theistic society in general), these masculine responsibilities are magnified even more, (like being the head of the family, going off to battle the heathens, etc). This is the flip-side of females being "second-class" in a xian society that many women are not aware of.

If the guy is expected to make all the decisions for his family, then he is also expected to take responsibility for how the life of his family turns out.

This is fine, but imagine a guy with an IQ of 80 and lacking in talent making decisions for everyone else. It makes no sense.

The point is that not all men will be qualified, (or feel that they are qualified), to take on this role, thus the priesthood would represent an escape route.

Everyone who has seen my posts on here regarding transexuals will know I have doubts about their claims also. I find it suspicious that most of them claim to have come to their decision at about the same age as all this goes on as well.

I also suspect that to be largely a retreat from masculinity, so not only do I find any preist/homosexuality* connection interesting, but also the number of people here who will suggest it so strongly.

Note: Transexual/Transgender people will argue until they are blue in the face that they are not homosexual, but if as I suggest transexual notions are a childhood retreat from masculinity, or merely a conscious preference to be something they are not, then in that context they would be.

ahappyheretic · 04-18-2006, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by general_koffi

They're not Roman Catholic, though. That's Eastern Orthodoxy - they split in the 12th Century, or something.

I think this thread probably pertains mainly to Roman Catholics... They're the only major denomination which requires celibacy, afaik.

It's probably quite high. I think something had to spark off Pope Ratty's inquisition against gays in the priesthood to begin with...

They are not Roman Catholic, but they are just as Catholic and are also subject to the pope.

Eastern Orthodox is not the same as Eastern Rite Catholics.

http://credo.stormloader.com/diffrite.htm

Quote:

Too many Catholics remain ignorant of the Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church. It is true that Latin or Roman-Rite Catholics comprise the overwhelming majority of the 1 billion Catholics throughout the world, but the many Eastern rite Catholics (who belong to the spiritual traditions of the ancient patriarchal Churches of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Constantinople, and a number of other centers of missionary expansion in the early Church) are as fully Catholics as Latin-Rite Catholics.

As the Second Vatican Council declared:

"The Catholic Church values highly the institutions of the Eastern Churches, their liturgical Rites, ecclesiastical traditions and their ordering of Christian life. For in those Churches, which are distinguished by their venarable antiquity, there is clearly evident the tradition which has come from the Apostles through the Fathers and which is part of the divinely revealed, undivided heritage of the Universal Church.

The Holy Catholic Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ, is made up of the faithful who are organically united in the Holy Spirit by the same Faith, the same sacraments and the same government. They combine into different groups, which are held together by their hierarchy, and to form particular Churches or Rites. Between those Churches there is such a wonderful bond of union that this variety in the Universal Church, far from diminishing its unity, rather serves to emphasize it. For the Catholic Church wishes the traditions of each particular Church or Rite to remain whole and entire, and it likewise wishes to adapt its own way of life to the needs of different times and places.

These individual Churches both Eastern and Western, while they differ somewhat among themselves in what is called 'rite', namely, in liturgy, in ecclesiastical discipline and in spiritual tradition, are none the less all equally entrusted to the pastoral guidance of the Roman Pontiff, who by God's appointment is successor to Blessed Peter in primacy over the Universal Church. Therefore these churches are of equal rank, so that none of them is superior to the others because of its rite. They have the same rights and obligations, even with regard to the preaching of the Gospel in the whole world (cf. Mk.16:15), under the direction of the Roman Pontiff."

( Decree on the Catholic Eastern Churches, nos. 1, 2 and 3 )

ahappyheretic · 04-18-2006, 11:59 AM

Has anyone been watching the "God or the Girl" series about four men deciding between marriage and the Catholic priesthood?

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04-18-2006, 11:59 AM	#33
ahappyheretic Regular Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: At home Posts: 261	Has anyone been watching the "God or the Girl" series about four men deciding between marriage and the Catholic priesthood?

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