Here is an article in the Denver Post which references a statement posted by a http://www.priesthood.motime.com/“>St. Blog’s seminarian.
When it comes to sex, marriage or democracy – why bother with the opinion of a celibate Catholic priest? Colorado Springs Bishop Michael Sheridan (http://www.priesthood.motime.com/) claims that marriage isn’t an invention of man. According to Sheridan (and hundreds of other Catholic theologians), "God himself is the author of marriage." Sheridan challenges Catholics to "do all we can to promote marriage and family life" in American society; condemns same-sex marriage ("This opens the door to polygamy and any number of other perversions…"); and claims that the one man-one woman marriage model is a matter of "natural law".
I disagree with Sheridan, but that’s not my point. He’s entitled to his opinion, but the real question is: who cares? When it comes to marriage and family life – heterosexual or homosexual – why would anyone bother with the opinion of a Catholic priest? What can a man who’s vowed to live his life without sex, marriage or family know about any of it? Sure, scores of priests have broken their vows of celibacy, but that’s just sex on the sly (hopefully with a consenting adult, or am I being too optimistic?) – hardly an example of a healthy sexual or intimate relationship.
So I wonder if she also advocates elimination psychiatrists. After all if the person isn’t crazy they couldn’t possibly understand their patient. And I am sure she looks for sick doctors when she seeks healthcare. I am constantly amazed at the lack of intellectual depth in arguments made in editorials. She has previously done some columns on the military and yet doesn’t appear to have served. Now this argument is common such as saying that men aren’t allowed to have an opinion on abortion since they can’t bear children. Now after she makes this argument she then as a non-Catholic gives her opinion on what the Catholic Church should do.
And I can’t fathom what self-respecting woman would sit in church on Sunday and listen to a man behind a pulpit who doesn’t believe she’s good enough to don the priestly robes herself
But it is no surprise that she lashes out on this issue since she has made speeches equating civil rights with gay rights. Even though she is married she also seems to think that it is consistent to have an opinion on gay marriage.
I’m Dani Newsum – I’d like to introduce my husband Ron, and our daughter McKenna. We are proud to be here with you today, standing for equality. But if the hateful people who today are intent on amending our national Constitution into a weapon of mass destruction – destroying the ability of gay and lesbian Americans to live their lives freely, peacefully and openly – if these people had had their way, I wouldn’t be here today, with my family, standing together with you. I have never seen a political party like today’s Republican Party: so hell-bent on using the law to make so many people into second-class citizens.
So now to believe that the homosexual lifestyle is immoral is to also be a racist.
Whatever. This foolishness is what happens when a cult of men with terminal cases of arrested sexual and psychosocial development try to make sense out of lifestyles they’re afraid to live for themselves.
Well since she isn’t a celibate priest I guess we should follow her advice and not listen to her.
11 comments
WOW – no words
I go to a neurologist because I have Tourette’s Syndrome, but although my neurologist doesn’t have TS, it doesn’t lessen his care of me.
What passes for editorials in the Denver Post these days? I’m surprised it didn’t show up in the Boulder Daily Camera.
Yeah, she’s full of something, and it ain’t just opinions.
I had a discussion years ago with a non-Catholic that followed similar lines. She wanted to know why married couples would ever go to a priest for marriage counseling, when a priest has never been married.
This was the first time I’d ever heard this argument (I know, where the heck have YOU been, you’re asking), but it struck me as weird. After all, I asked her, when (or if) she went to a secular marriage counselor, did she (or would she) inquire as to the counselor’s personal marital status, i.e., married, divorced, how many divorces, etc., first? She frankly admitted that she did not, and would not, do so. The professional qualifications of the counselor are the issue, not his/her personal marital status.
It was an epiphany for both of us.
When God designed and created human beings, why didn’t he make us with a higher level of intelligence?
Another great Christian mystery to ponder…
Billy and Adam,
I couldn’t have put it better! Right-on, guys! Preach it!
It’s seemed true to me for a long time that:
(1) Someone who sits in a confessional for an hour or more once a week listening to people’s problems might possibly know a thing or two.
(2) While a married person has the advantage of first-hand knowledge of the experience of marriage, he also has the disadvantage of tending to see every marriage through the prism of his own experience. The celibate may be able to be more objective.
“Someone who sits in a confessional for an hour or more once a week listening to people’s problems might possibly know a thing or two.”
Yes, maybe if people went to confession more often, it would be easier to reallize that a priest can give counsel. Another reason why the sacraments are important.
There’s a broken link at the beginning of the article.
I hope this “Dani Newsum” has an email address. I will ask her:
1) If he/she is claiming that all 400,000 priests worldwide have arrested development, is this not hate speech directed toward a religious group?
2) If a married layman teaches the same Church doctrines as al these priests, would that make it okay to you? There are many such lay theologians.
3) So Catholics and Republicans are all bigots. Who’s the real hateful person here anyway?
The article on the Denver Post is impeccable. It provides useful elements for reflection.
Unfortunately, some people are often more concerned about obsessively defending dogmas rather than questioning things and pursuing truth.
Just read the following article
http://www.richardsipe.com/Articles/Celibacy_is_a_Problem.html
you will have a more precise opinion on what hides behind Catholic teachings regarding sex and celibacy. The following article means something: abstract angel-like self-indulgent theologies count less than nothing if the reality of human beings is not taken into account and is denied.