The Catholic Church, being nearly 2,000 years old, still follows many of the same rules and guidelines established in the early church. One item that many Catholics are surprised to learn is that the tradition of priests and other clergy members remaining celibate has not always been present in the church. There are many Catholics, in and out of the clergy, who believe that priests should have the ability to get married and raise a family. In fact, priestly celibacy is not a church law, but, as Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone says it is a "positive tradition," and not "untouchable" (France-Pressez). However, some critics of the practice would argue that celibacy is not a positive tradition, and that in fact it is responsible for many of the pedophilia scandals that are present in today’s church. They say that repressing sexual instincts is not healthy. The Vatican needs to consider effects of celibacy on the mental health of priests and stop requiring that they take the vow.
The first pope that Jesus chose to lead his new church, Peter, was a married man. Throughout the second and third century priests were married.
Ending priestly celibacy could also help with another of the church’s major problems: the shortage of new priests. The amount of Catholics in the world is rising, but the amount of ordained priests is dropping. In the United States in 1965 there were 58,632 Catholic priests. In 2009 there were 40,666 (Frequently). The world population of Catholics has grown from 653,500,000 in 1970 to 1,045,000,000 in 2000 (Is There). In his book The Catholic Myth, Andrew Greeley, a Catholic priest, says that many of his fellow priests have given up on trying to recruit young men to the priesthood until the c...
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...nd His Father, the Priest." The New York Times. 15 Oct. 2009. Web. 22 May 2010. .
Greeley, Andrew M. Catholic Myth: the Behavior and Beliefs of. [S.l.]: Macmillan, 1990. Print.
"Is There a Priest Shortage? Worldwide & U.S. Statistics." Beliefnet. Beliefnet, Inc. Web. 23 May 2010. .
Levy, Clifford J. "A Flock Grows Right at Home for a Priest in Ukraine." The New York Times. 22 Mar. 2010. Web. 23 May 2010. .
Perko, F. Michael. Catholic & American: a Popular History. Huntington, Ind.: Our Sunday Visitor Pub. Division, 1989. Print.
To begin with, it must be remembered that Catholic culture and Catholic faith, while mutually supportive and symbiotic, are not the same thing. Mr. Walker Percy, in his Lost in the Cosmos, explored the difference, and pointed out that, culturally, Catholics in Cleveland are much more Protestant than Presbyterians in say, Taos, New Orleans, or the South of France. Erik, Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, points out that the effects of this dichotomy upon politics, attributing the multi-party system in Catholic countries to the Catholic adherence to absolutes; he further ascribes the two-party system to the Protestant willingness to compromise. However this may be, it does point up a constant element in Catholic thought---the pursuit of the absolute.
On May the eighth of this year, the Conference of United States Religious Leaders and Ministers was held in Chicago, Illinois. The conference is an annual event coordinated by church leaders who each send a representative to take part in the discussions. Father Gregory McAllister of the Diocese of Arlington traveled to Chicago to attend the conference and share his knowledge. He spoke on behalf of the Catholic Church, while ministers and clergy from various religions from across the country also shared their views on the topics discussed.
Robert Laurence Moore has written a delightful, enlightening, and provocative survey of American church history centered around the theme of "mixing" the "sacred" with the "secular" and vice versa. The major points of conversation covered include the polarization caused by the public display of religious symbols, the important contribution that women and Africans have made to the American religious mosaic, the harmony and friction that has existed between science and religion, the impact of immigration on religious pluralism, and the twin push toward the union and separation of religion and politics.
Mexicans were Christian people and White immigrants were not as alarmed by their religious practices as they were by the repulsive practices on California Indians or “pagan idolaters”. Mexican Catholics were at least a God-fearing people and therefore seen as more closely approximating European-American notions of civility. Their culture was welcomed and adopted through the Catholics Church’s “Americanization” program which included an introduction to bilingual parochial schools, orphanages, hospitals, and newspaper publications
The Democratization of American Christianity, by Nathan Hatch, is written about “the cultural and religious history of the early American republic and the enduring structures of American Christianity” (3). Hatch writes to make two arguments: 1) the theme of democratization is central to understanding the development of American Christianity, and 2) the years of the early republic are the most crucial in revealing to process that took and is still taking place. The story of the democratization of American Christianity begins with the population boom in America from the Revolution up to 1845. Hatch writes that during this boom, “American Christianity became a mass enterprise” (4).
Divine, Robert A. America past and Present. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education/Longman, 2013. 245. Print.
Gaustad, Edwin S. The Religious History of America: The Heart of the American Story from Colonial Times to Today. N.p.: HarperOne, 2004. Print.
Towards the middle of the nineteenth century a “Catholic” candidate, Paul Blanshard, ran for presidency. Blanshard was a burden to the Republicans due to his religion. The view of Catholicism was an institutional and political problem. Even if the candidate was not Catholic, he was married by a Catholic priest and apparently that was a connected him to Catholic problems. A political problem because Catholicism was a world power that of Pr...
Of course, as a Catholic, I am not opposed to the Church’s traditions, nor do I see them as inadequate. Since the Church is a human institution meant to represent the divine and is not divine itself, however, I feel that there must be room for improvement. For example, I recently became curious as to why women were still not allowed to become priests, so I decided to find out. I questioned two priests, my religion teacher, and numerous other practicing Catholics, and the best answer anyone could give me was, “That’s just the way we’ve always done it.” While traditions provide stability and unity within a group of people, to be unquestionably planted in tradition can restrict growth. How often do traditions that once held deep meaning fade to become mundane tasks too difficult to let go? Too often, I see the congregation of a church monotonously reciting the Lord’s prayer, a prayer which Catholics believe was spoken directly from the mouth of God, with little regard for its meaning, or singing a joyful song such as the “Alleluia” with a positively depressing expression. No fault lies within these traditions themselves, but only in the way we view them. The Church must remind its members of the purpose of every prayer, every symbol, and every law so that Catholics do not lose the meaning of their religion.
Eck, Diana L. A New Religious America: How a "Christian Country" Has Now Become the World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001. Print
The marianismo gender role beliefs vary depending on where one is located. Marianismo beliefs influence what women see as “appropriate female behavior” (Craske, 1999, p. 12). Stereotypes of women are created which have stuck to what is ‘appropriate’ for what women can and cannot do. It is out of the normalcy for women to not follow these marianismo beliefs. It is obvious that motherhood is found as the ultimate role for women. Though it would make sense that men have fatherhood is not the ultimate role for men (even though both man and woman are needed to create a child) this is not the case at all. Another key marianismo belief Craske (2002) found was that women are “dominant in the private world of domestic organization,” while men are dominant in the public sector (p. 11). This is important to know because women lived very secluded lifestyles. This exclusive lifestyle connects to how Catholic women in Latin America had greater transgressions than men when it came...
... States one of the most popular religions, Catholicism, still does not permit women to serve in the priest capacity. Some issues will take many centuries to change, and just like in Catholicism, this Islamic barrier will take time to break down.
Towards Understanding, (1999). Towards Understanding: A study of factors specific to the Catholic Church which might lead to sexual abuse by priests and religious (National Committee for Professional Standards, Sydney).
A topic long debated within the contexts of the Catholic Church and even outside the Catholic Church is the policy of an all male priesthood. There are many other churches within the Christian faith that have women clergy, and so the debate as to whether or not the Catholics should include the opposite sex in the clergy is a very hot topic. One person that has a fascinating view of the topic is a man by the name, Paul E. Dinter, the author of the article, “Christ’s Body as Male and Female.” In this article Dinter, a former man of the cloth, presents his take on the issue attempting to show his audience that the policy of the Church in indeed flawed. However before any member of Dinters audience can formulate an educated opinion on the topic three aspects of the article must be questioned: credibility, logic and reason, and how the article appeals to emotion.
The Church was run by a Pope, monks, and nuns, and priests. The Pope was the head of the Catholic Church. The Pope was views as God’s representative, and the populous looked up to them on how to live and pray. It was the Pope’s choice, to decide what the church would teach. Pope Benedict forced all monks and nuns to take three vows, in order to practice in the Church. A vow of poverty, to give up all worldly goods; a vow of chastity to stay single; a vow of obedience to promise to obey the church and the rules of the monastery (Benedictine Rules). Nuns were women who prayed, weaved, practiced teaching, and wrote books, while monks devoted majority of their lives to the discipline of prayer.