I have been predicting a schism in the Roman Catholic Church over the issue of celibacy in the priesthood, and I thought that the ugly head of separation was beginning to rear itself when Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo was excommunicated last month for installing four married men as bishops.
I thought that Milingo would provide the growing group a strong, outspoken leader. With the bishops he installed ordaining other priests, I didn’t think it would be long before a full schism would occur.
However, an October 13 article from the LA Daily News would seem to prove me wrong. It seems as though this group prefers to work within the system and not use out-and-out rebellion as its preferred method.
According to the article, Archbishop Milingo’s associations with Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his “flamboyant style” make other groups very cautious to associate with him. They consider the former prelate a “loose cannon.”
The article also makes this assertion:
Most groups estimate there are at least 25,000 men in the United States who left the active priesthood to marry, 100,000 to 150,000 worldwide. The church considers them outcasts. Some totally drop out of religious life. But others continue to independently carry on rites such as marriages even though they are not considered valid in the eyes of the church.
It makes me sad to know that some of these people are completely dropping out of religious life. I wish that the Roman Church would relax their celibacy rules; it seems to me that it is more important to maintain a relationship with Jesus than to hold on to an outdated tradition.
Could this rule be an example of the food that Paul is speaking of in this passage?
If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. Do not allow that you consider good to be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.
Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. [Romans 14:15-20]
Of course, Rome can make the argument in reverse. But, for now, it seems, more people are in favor of married clergy and that means that Rome should “do what leads to peace and mutual edification.”
If married clergy does not benefit both sides of the equation, I would like to know how.
