(urth) PF as YA

Matthew Weber palaeologos at gmail.com
Mon Apr 20 14:42:10 PDT 2009


On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 2:33 PM, Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman at yahoo.com>wrote:

>
> --- On Mon, 4/20/09, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com> wrote:
> ...
>
> > The relevant question here -- and it's one which I
> > don't know the
> > answer to -- is,
> > "what if a widower becomes a priest and it turns out
> > his wife isn't dead after
> > all?" My guess is that this would become an exception,
> > because neither the
> > sacrament of matrimony nor that of holy orders can be
> > "undone."
>
> As I recall, there's such a thing as a conditional baptism.
> You're making me wonder whether there's a conditional
> ordination in cases where there's some doubt about whether
> the wife is really dead.  Of course, if there's much
> doubt, I imagine the widower couldn't be ordained, but
> what about the case of a shipwreck or plane crash where
> it's practically certain that no one survived, but no
> bodies were recovered?
>
> Getting back to /Pirate Freedom/, though, obviously
> Chris isn't going to tell anyone in the 21st-century
> Church about Novia.
>
> Who here wishes Wolfe had included Chris's letter to
> Bishop Scully resigning his post?
>
> Jerry Friedman
>
>
>
>
>
No, a conditional ordination would be when there's doubt that a person has
been ordained validly.  Sacraments *sub conditione *are administered when
there is some kind of doubt as to the validity of a previous bestowal (as
also with baptism or confirmation; the RCC will conditionally re-baptize or
confirm if an initiate is unsure whether he has been previously baptized or
confirmed, or if the person has been baptized with a non-Trinitarian
formula).  There's no provision for "taking back" any sacrament once it's
been conferred; even ordination, once it's been given, can never be taken
back.  A so-called "defrocked" priest hasn't been deprived of the
priesthood, just his ability to legally exercise it.  Likewise, a
declaration of a marriage's nullity doesn't cancel the sacrament--it says
that it never actually occurred.

There is no dogmatic or doctrinal prohibition against married priests in the
RCC.  It is purely a matter of discipline.  A married man *can* be a priest;
the Roman Catholic Church just doesn't ordain married men.  There are a
number of explanations why this is so; the most frequent ones are 1) being a
priest is a demanding job which requires the full attention of the person
who exercises it, leaving no room in his life for a family; and 2) paying
the additional amount required to support a wife and children would divert
money that the Church needs for other things.



-- 
Matt +

Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may
be superior.  Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), Politics, bk. V, ch. 2
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