Pope Denounces Dissident Priests on Celibacy

Nicole Winfield - The Associated Press

AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia
Pope Benedict XVI, foreground, is photographed by the faithful as he tours St. Peter's square during the weekly general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 4, 2012. Benedict XVI denounced priests who have questioned church teaching on celibacy and ordaining women, saying Thursday they were disobeying his authority to try to impose their own ideas on the church.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI denounced priests who have questioned church teaching on celibacy and ordaining women, saying Thursday they were disobeying his authority to try to impose their own ideas on the church.

Benedict made the rare and explicit criticism from the altar of St. Peter's Basilica in his homily on Holy Thursday, when

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April 05, 2012

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1. Philip Vorgias wrote on April 05, 2012 10:16 AM	Priest celibacy isn't working and hasn't worked for the RC Church. It has contributed mightily to the continuing problem with Priest sexual crimes, anybody with common sense acknoledges that. But still the RC Church clings to this dogma, while paying off Millions in settlments to abused victims. The Pope is clueless and out of touch.

2. Constantinos E. Scaros wrote on April 05, 2012 6:27 PM	With that decision, the Catholic Church continues to pad its lead over the other Christian denominations in terms of "man-made" - and often utterly counter-Christian - dogma.

3. Philip Vorgias wrote on April 05, 2012 10:34 PM	The RC Church is losing millions of members worldwide with each revelation about Priest misbehavior. When it starts impacting the bottom line in Church funds-and it has already-the Vatican will suddenly have an epiphany and make long needed changes. It's sad how quickly they react to cash-flow reductions while seeing these issues drag on and on as long as it's only victims who are suffering.

4. Fr. Basil Papanikolaou wrote on April 07, 2012 5:29 PM	Unfortunately, The Orthodox Church imposes celibacy on widowed priests by applying, supposedly, Apostolic canons which have been proven fraudulent by eminent Orthodox church historians. Those canons were formulated by monks during the 4th century and were attributed to the Holy Apostles for obvious reasons. The underline thought is that celibacy is superior to married life, women are inferior to men and sex even within marriage is sinful. Without realizing it, our church is inflicting cruel punishment on widowed priests!

5. Philip Vorgias wrote on April 07, 2012 11:46 PM	Celibacy is Church dogma, nothing else. It causes a great deal of problems for many of those who have to live by this ridiculous and un-Biblical mandate. At the end of the day the Church hierarchy needs to ask themselves the fundmental questions about their practices-is it working as intended? Is it causing problems? The answer to those questions is obvious.
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