My Point Exactly

http://www.pressmediawire.com/Article.cfm?articleID=20982

This article says a lot about the people making the case for married priests. I'm not saying there are no good arguments for changing the western rite discipline; i'm saying i haven't heard any. I keep hearing from the peanut gallery. Like this guy.



Though the debate over celibacy in the Catholic Church has been ongoing, two recent efforts have thrust the discussion front and center.

An organization known as Celibacy Is the Issue Ministries (CITI) is making a renewed effort to prove that married priests can administer the sacrament under Canon Law #843, which states that “both pastors of souls and all other members of Christ’s faithful have a duty to ensure that those who ask for the sacraments are prepared for their reception.”[How about the men who ask for the sacrament of holy orders be prepared to live up to their vows?]

It’s a practical look at marriage and the priesthood that may convince the Church to reconsider its stance on celibacy—a stance discussed in harrowing detail by a priest whose own battles with celibacy cost him dearly.

Father Ameen (not his real name), an Eastern Rite Catholic priest [Eastern rite men who are already married can become priests; Fr. Ameen could have put his ducks in a row] and author of Confessions of a Passionate Priest, believes that fewer parishes would struggle to find priests if the Church were more pragmatic on the issue of celibacy.

“I had an affair with a married woman,” says Father Ameen. “The reality of human nature is that we need intimacy.[This woman was married and didn't keep her vows. She HAD intimacy and sought more elsewhere. Should the Church rethink its teaching on monogamy in marriage, too?] The Church is failing to address that. ”

In his book, Father Ameen discusses his own punishment at the hands of his bishop after his affair went public. He says he believes that allowing married priests to remain as operating clerics would help to avoid situations like his, which got worse recently when his bishop found out that he had written a book about it. [Imagine that; a bishop getting upset about one of his priests leading a woman to spiritual death and then writing a book to profit off of it. That narrow-minded chauvinist!] Father Ameen was barred from returning to his parish.

“The Church often looks the other way when priests are having intimate relationships,” says Father Ameen.[It doesn't matter if Church officials are confirming people in their sin. It's still sinful no matter how many or how few people participate in it.] “They understand, as well as I and CITI do, that marriage does not distract from priestly duties.” [That's because it's not marriage, it's an extramarital (presumably) sexual relationship. It's not a marriage. Is such a relationship open to life? How does the priest plan to support those children should he be open to life? Is the woman contracepting to prevent the affair from being discovered? I doubt a woman who would bed a priest would be scrupulous in upholding Church teaching on openness to in every sexual act. Call me a cynic.]

Recent statistics may force the Church to admit as much:

-More than 25,000 priests have married in the United States since the 1970s.[Which is about the time the marxist undermining of our faith really took root.]
-At present, more than 5,300 parishes are without priests. [So? We should ordain men who will steal our wives just to avoid a two-hour wait for confession?]
-In the last thirty years, seminary enrollment has dropped from 45,000 to just 3,500. [Once again, marxists infiltrating our Church and poorly implementing Second Vatican Coucil teachings have more to do with that than celibacy. Celibacy existed in the Church as doctrine since the 11th century. Why is enrollment down recently?]

“I love the Church, but it does have some rules that serve no one,” says Father Ameen.[Like 'Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife'.] “I’m proof, as are all married Eastern Rite priests, that one can live in the secular world and still serve God.”[Read: I'm living proof that one can serve God and Mammon].

Father Ameen remains dedicated to the priesthood despite his contradiction of specific Church rules. [And dogmas.] He currently lives in an undisclosed location in the United States, preferring to remain anonymous to avoid recrimination.[Recrimination from who? The woman's husband he defiled?]

(Confessions of a Passionate Priest by Father Ameen; ISBN: 0-9816892-0-5; $14.95; 224 pages; 5½” x 8½”; softcover; East Mountain Books)


A very wise priest once told me that being celibate was not so different from being married. You must be chaste either way. In celibacy you are faithful to God. In marriage, you are faithful to one person. You must find ways of dealing with temptations when you are attracted to someone else in either calling. Celibacy is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray for our priests to embrace this gift and continue living in faithfulness to the Lord that they may lead us to the Kingdom.