Introduction:
This is one of the most controversial issues in the Catholics. The thought or idea of allowing priests to get married with the girl they tend to love. Many people are surely against it because as people say “it is against the morale”. People believed that it is the priest’s mortal sin to fall in love, thus they are only human that seeks for someone whom they would find comfort.They are also part of this world that needs company to attain happiness.
Because that’s what we all are looking for, the continuous search for unconditional love and never ending happiness. If I were to be asked, I’d gladly agree that, they, the priests should be allowed of getting married. It’s not because they are to serve god forever that they shouldn’t be allowed to be loved unconditionally by someone. A servant of God can still serve God even with family.
Its not as if God will compete with the love and dedication that the priest shows, because the love for God is purely not demanding, it is a covenant which is unbreakable. This is the fact that though people don’t want to accept, it is still undeniable that priests are not god, they are just human with the flesh and soul to be taken care of. Body: Priests are someone who spreads on to the world the good preaching of God; . In the time of Jesus many of his followers are with family, in this case they won’t be committing any mortal sin by just marrying. In this generation many cases of married priests are recorded and debated with by the church and protagonists.
According to the cannon law which is a law from the Catholic Church, revised in the year 1983, they allowed priests in getting married for the past 1200 years and for the fact of this statement, 39 popes were included. Unfortunately the second Lateran change the rule during the year of 1139.The entire priests that got married before that year were then declared that their marriages were invalid and that no marriages of priests had ever existed. On that year on priests were said to be maintaining their celibacy life. The word celibacy doesn’t just mean not getting married but also not having any sexual intercourse.
Still as the years pass by, many of the catholic priests once desired of being married but sad to say that before they are to be allowed, they are required of doing a lot of paper works and statements from them such as I never should have been ordained in the first place is a must statement that should be included in the paper. The dispensation of celibacy document which is called rescript includes the statement that says the priest loses his right of preaching and is no longer bound by the duties of a priest. It also includes not allowing the person to join or participate in any activities and functions of a priest. If he then agrees with all the conditions of the church, the priest will then be allowed to do as he wishes. In order to be allowed in getting married, a priest should have to accept all the consequences such as being not able to continue his preaching, living a lot whole different life from being a priest turning to an ordinary man with a wife. Some of the priests who got married. He is currently living in Phoenix, Arizona.
Wightman was ordained priest on the year 1981 then decided to get married with his wife Nancy on the year1986. Therefore he is now a not active priest. He has two sons. John, his oldest son in the age of 20 and his youngest son Jason at the age of 18. Because he had decided to leave the church and started family, Wightman gave up his being a priest without applying for a dispensation. In the first place he would not want to testify that he should not be in the first place ordained to be a priest as what the paper work for the dispensation asks of them to state.
He also did not want the restrictions of the church that after the dispensation of his ordinance he is no longer allowed to participate in any form of church ministry. The cannon law that was applied to his case was the cannon law number 1394 which states that he is suspended. The good thing about it is that if someone who wishes for him to do anything sacramental, he is allowed because according to the catholic’s law of cannon, he is just suspended. It was stated at cannon law number1335.
By the cannon law 1335, a lot of priests were still able to be involved actively in operating full parishes and doing weddings. After the years of being out of the church, Wightman and his wife Nancy filed a divorce and separated. Unfortunately after giving up his dedication as a priest, his marriage did not work its way out through lifetime. Now he wants to go back to his bishop and ask if he could go back and be allowed again to work in parishes.
He was a priest in the archdiocese of Los Angeles; he spent three years being a religion educator. When he got married in the age of 39, the church of course didn’t want to go with his decision, the pastor also told him that nobody will be attending his wedding ceremony. Then on October 10, 1970 many parishioners attended his wedding. There came group of nuns, an Orthodox priest and an Episcopalian.
After his marriage, the Catholic Church didn’t recognize him as a priest anymore though Ara says that he will always love his faith and his church. He misses his leadership role as a priest so much.Ara is currently working as a family and marriage counselor. He’s just one of those priests who left the Roman Catholic Church, despite the fact that the church no longer recognize their right to doing sacramental activities to do a wedding, baptisms and even occasional mass he still thinks that a priest will always be a priest by devotion, by heart, and by soul.
Though the church seemed to turn their back on him, he still has hope for the church goodness. Now he lives with his family under the influence of all his preaching during those years of his priesthood. He said living out of the world you have used to is agonizing, but having someone to love you and having your own family will make your life worth it and will make you complete. It will show you what doest it means when they say that life is a gift from God . Critics for married priests:Human are always judgmental no matter how kind and considerate they might be.
Once they see someone doing things which are basically out of moral or norms, they tend to make something out of it. A lot of people usually criticize those married priest, sometimes people think that those priests who decided to marry are those who desire the feel of flesh. That those priests are only thinking about their own happiness and taking advantage of their promised vow to god when they were ordained as priests. But aren’t people thinking that most of those priests’ lives where already spent doing their vocations? They say that married priests are sinful and self centered.
Some says that they are probably out of their mind. Let those people be given chance to be happy with the rest of their lives spending it with someone that will surely take care of them. The Catholic Church says that the comradery of the priesthood which is we’re all in this together will suffer because the married priest’s time is divided into his family and his being a priest. The church thinks that the effect of this to the relationship of married and unmarried priests will lead to a seriously negative bond. Analysis:If a priest decides to go out of his devotion and get married, there are a lot of ways to apply for. It is according to the church and its cannon law.
A priest that does not apply for dispensation and get married are only suspended and not disordained as the cannon law number 1335 consider its case. They are still allowed to do marriage ceremonies and other type of sacramental activities if someone asks them to do so. They can still be active in some priesthood activities but limited ways(Austin Cline, 2007).
Conclusion:
Most priests of today are already married and are still doing sacramental activities.
Therefore there is really nothing wrong with it. The only problem is that a lot of critics are insisting priests marriage to be a sinful and immoral act, this is according to a certain places’ norms.I believe that a priest could still be an effective priest even though he is married. That would add to his account to explain and give advice about family problems or problems about love because definitely they are experiencing the same thing and they know how it feels. The good side of it is that though they decide to live a life having their own family, they left their heart with the teachings of the church and words of god, and they are still willing to conduct activities that are related to being priest.
