Chosen topic: Should we allow Catholic priests to marry?

Side: FOR Catholic priests to marry

Celibacy of the clergy
An internet site, www.newadent.org, describes celibacy as !the renunciation of marriage
implicitly ore e"plicitly made, for the more perfect obserance of chastity, by all those who
receie the Sacrament of Orders in any of the higher grades.# So it is basically a rule for those
who are to be ordained as priests not to marry. $he basic use of this rule is so that priests could
concentrate on %od&s wor' alone. ( for one don&t thin' that celibacy is needed for the priest, and
that they should be allowed marry if they so choose.
)y first argument is that marrying someone does not mean that one will be distracted
from one&s priestly duties. (n an article that ( had downloaded from the site ( mentioned aboe,
there was a passage that said that priests that are married would need to wor' for his family since
his income from the Church would be barely enough to coer his family&s needs. ( thin' that in
our world today it is no longer uncommon for a woman to wor' alongside his husband to help
support their family and so if a priest and his wife can wor', then the priest wouldn&t need to
worry about his family&s welfare.
Also a priest doesn&t e"actly hae a *+,- wor'ing period. $rue a priest needs to be ready
for anything at anytime but there are moments when he has nothing to do. (n fact ( once read an
article in Reader&s .igest / ( apologi0e that ( cannot remember the e"act issue number1 that there
was a priest who wanted his parishioners to hae problems so that they would as' for his help
because he felt that there were times that he wasn&t doing anything. And so if the priest marries at
least he will get to spend his free time helping out other human beings, specifically his children. (
thin' that this would be a better way to spend one&s time instead of lounging around or
constantly reflecting.
)y second argument is that it will at least ma'e the priest more helpful to his fellow
parishioners. As we 'now e"perience is the best teacher and if the priest marries someone, he
will be able to understand e"actly what marriage is all about. For e"ample, a priest would tell his
congregation that they should be faithful to their husbands and wies. 2ow would the
congregation beliee in him if he himself does not een understand the ery thing he is as'ing
him to do? (&m not saying that you really need to be married to understand the life of a married
person but it helps a lot since it gies the priest the proper perspectie to be able to understand
what he is teaching about. And the priest could become a good e"ample to his parishioners by
being a good family man.
)y last argument is that een the ery origin of the rule of celibacy has its chin's. $he
Church says that St. 3aul once said, ! ( would that all men were een as myself4 but eeryone
hath his proper gift from %od 5 but ( say to the unmarried and to the widows, it is good for
them if they so continue, een as (.# And that because of this it means that celibacy is a 677.
for the priests. 8ell, actually St. 3aul was 9ust suggesting it. 2e said that it is good for them if
they so continue /without a wife1 but he didn&t say that it was the only choice. ( thin' that he said
this at a time when all of the !priests# needed to go from one country to another, when there was
still a need to spread the word all around the world. 6owadays though priests only preach locally
and so they no longer hae the fear of being tied down by a family.
(n conclusion ( thin' that celibacy is no longer a rule needed for the priests mainly
because marriage doesn&t mean that the priest would be too distracted to focus in his priestly
duties, it will add to the priests e"perience and understanding of %od&s teaching and that een the
basis of the rule of celibacy doesn&t e"plicitly state that it is truly needed. And it would really
lessen the need for the Church to coer up scandals inoling priests marrying, but of course
that&s only a small:added bonus for the priests to be able to marry someone they loe.