Priest Marries in Australia

A news story has broken about a priest in Australia who has admitted that he has been secretly married for a year. The article also says that there are many more like him in the world. The link is at the bottom of this article.

 

Now MSNBC ran the story and since I believe MSNBC lies through their teeth about most things, I'm taking it with a grain of salt.

Still, if it is true, then this priest is saying that there are more priests like him and if that's true, then I'm pretty sad about the whole situation.

We understand they have those same needs as most men seem to think they need, but as a man of God, God gives our priests the grace to not desire things of this world but only of the next.

I'm not entirely against a priest being married, but there are some reasons for celibacy. One, St. Paul talks about how it is better to be celibate, but if you can't be, then be married. Course in today's culture, being married is no longer a prerequisite to people having sex.

As I stated in my previous post, tv plays a lot into how people lead their lives and priests are human, too. If priests watch the same garbage the rest of the world watches, I would think that it would be pretty hard for them to live their life of celibacy.

What many people fail to understand is that celibacy is a discipline, not a doctrine and began when men, themselves, decided to forsake others in favor of living for God alone. God does not exactly say a priest has to be celibate, but again, we fall back on St. Paul's words regarding his own vocation of being celibate. And he was a priest of God's.

Mary, herself, was given so many graces to help her in this life retain her virginity, to not lust for man. Priests are given these very same graces and are not required to become a priest, but rather have chosen to be one. It is an admirable profession, even if most of mankind doesn't recognize it as such.

I was glad to see that his bishop is removing him from his duties. The same thing happened to Father Corapi. These men are given a long discernment period in the beginning to decided, can they be a priest, do they really want to be a priest and can they live up to their own vows, just as we are to live up to our marriage vows.

So we need to pray hard for our priests. The devil is working hard today to try and take them from God before the end of time. If we are in the end times, then our prayers need to be especially fervent for those men who are to lead their flocks to heaven.

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/02/11497228-catholic-priest-in-australia-ive-been-secretly-married-for-a-year?lite