XPost: alt.religion.christian.biblestudy, alt.religion.christian   
   roman-catholic, england.religion.misc   
   XPost: free.christians, hk.soc.religion.christianity   
   From: œ@att.net   
      
   Priestly celibacy is not an unchangeable dogma but a disciplinary   
   rule. The fact that Peter was married is no more contrary to the   
   Catholic faith than the fact that the pastor of the nearest Maronite   
   Catholic church is married. Although most people are at some point in   
   their lives called to the married state, the vocation of celibacy is   
   explicitly advocated-as well as practiced-by both Jesus and Paul. Paul   
   actually endorses celibacy for those capable of it: "To the unmarried   
   and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I   
   am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For   
   it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion" (7:8-9).   
   Paul even goes on to make a case for preferring celibacy to marriage:   
   "Are you free from a wife? Do not seek marriage. . . those who marry   
   will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. . . . The   
   unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please   
   the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to   
   please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried   
   woman or girl is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy   
   in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious about worldly   
   affairs, how to please her husband" (7:27-34).   
      
   Paul's conclusion: He who marries "does well; and he who refrains from   
   marriage will do better" (7:38).   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)