Much more importantly, his inheritence goes back to the church, not to his wife and kids. Priests spent loads of money, believe me.
self gratification isn't allowed if you want to be celibate for real, but humans shouldn't try to be celibate. only people like jesus can do that without going crazy. let me clear this up for you a bit. sex is the "god" of religions which creates new life. sexual energy is the lifeforce. by having sex you use your lifeforce. a long time ago there were people who could harness the sexual energy and that's why they had all their crazy magical powers that you read about in myths. eventually these ancient spiritual people didn't have any sex at all, so they gradually "died" out (ascended to higher planes). but before they died, genesis 6:4 says that they had sex with 'ordinary' materialistic humans, so that their powers would be transmitted to us. at first many people were born with magical powers, like the prophets in the bible, but the more time passed, the more the powers started to vanish. jesus was one of the last "sons of god", as they were called. when those holy men had sex with "us", they "crucified" themselves (god, divine self) in these bodies to save us from materialism. the sexual energy in the bible is symbolized with a snake ("devil"), but if you've read the bible, you can see that if you "lift up a serpent on a cross", it becomes a rod/staff, which symbolizes sexual energy that has been converted to divine energy. sex means to unite and become one with the one you love (god/self). when humans were separated from god/self when they "ate the fruit", they now seek themselves/god outside themselves, in religions, in people of opposite gender etc. but in reality they can only find themselves in themselves. god has seemingly divided into two parts, male and female, so they seek to unite and become "god" (infinite joy) again.
In psychology, it is said priests make use of a defense mechanism called sublimation, which enables them to redirect their sexual urges to more acceptable activities. Ex.: Painting, martial arts, playing an instrument, etc. Perhaps the ones that don't redirect their urges do those things.
or alternatively, notions of mendicancy have gone so far out the door in contemporary western culture that there is a whole way of life from as recent as 75 years ago that people cannot even begin to understand
its interesting, mum and i were having a conversation about married priests a while ago and it was her opinion that he church SHOULD alow priests to marry. After all if you look at the work they do its mostly quite similar to the work a psycologist does yet the psycologist can come home and unburden themselves of all the crappy things they have to deal with, with there partner. Priests dont have that suport. Nuns and brothers on the other hand dont deal with these sorts of things, they dont go out and give the last rights to children and try to surport there families. Or suport the remaining partner who has just lost his\her wife or husband of 50 or more years ect.
there is the added element about whether having an opportunity to have a heightened or more focused relationship with god can offer a few reserves that can't even be approached by the most functional of monogamous realtionships
of course, ignore the fact that your oposing position comes from a RELIGION teacher in a catholic school. Its her job to take the kids through all the sacroments so if you think you have a closer relationship with your priest than the working relationship mum has with the priest of the parish her school is under go right aheadPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
actually no, i was responding to your comment that because i dont belive in god i dont know what im talking about. I actually do have very strong conections to the catholic church and i probably know whats happerning there in before you do and with more accuracy inspite of the fact that i think the church is one of the most unethical insitutions on earth
This is not true. A priest's work is not even close to a psychologist's work. A priest is not a regular person anymore, because at least ideally, a priest has a knowledge and connection to God that run-of-the-mill people don't. I am repusled by older men, men in their forties and later who are engaging in sex, yet who still talk about God. I have no respect for CS Lewis, for example, or other non-clergy theistic writers. Nor for any protestant priest who even in in his fifties and sixties has sex. Nor for such women. If these people know God -as they claim they do- then why on earth do they need to engage in run-of-the-mill activities? Why do these supposedly God-knowing people engage in sex, have their favorite TV series to watch, why do they eat meat, hunt, drink alcohol and coffee, smoke ...? Do they not know God??
Oh dear, You obviously have a hangup about sex. Why you should be repulsed by older people engaging in sex is beyond me. It is a natural human activity, as are the other activities you mention. Why should knowing god affect any of this or vice versa. ?
As it's quite likely that Jesus and Mary Magdelene were an item, it's doubtful that Jesus was celibate. The bible may not mention him consumating the relationship, but it doesn't mention him using a toilet either, and it would be incorrect to infer Jesus never took a crap! Jesus being betrayed by Judas was probably because Judas was jealous, and had homosexual feelings towards Jesus. Sex, sex, and more sex. The bibles are full of it.
Celibacy in the RC Church has a practical side to it. It relieves the Church of the burden of caring for widows and orphans of the clergy.
I would have thought the answer is simple different values Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!