Msg Base:  AREA 3  - ASK FATHER (AMDG)
  Msg No: 42.  Fri  8-28-92 21:30  (NO KILL)
    From: Father Mateo
      To: Gayle Zickefoose
 Subject: celibacy inthe Roman Rite

GZ|Blessings in The Name of Our Lord
  |Father Mateo,
 
GZ|For centuries The Roman Rite has been teaching  the layity that celebacy
  |is demanded of ALL Priests... Yet since the beginning of The Catholic
  |Church this has not been so... I.E. St.Peter had a wife per St Pauil's
  |Writings..... Angelician Priests are being accepted on a case by case
  |basis into The Roman Jurisdictions... Not to mention Other Rites  taht
  |have alwas held celebacy as an option rather than a mandate....
 
GZ|What source is generally available to the layity that will clarify this
  |issue?
 
GZ|Shalom,
 
GZ|Gayle
 
Dear Gayle:
 
May I humbly suggest that the Roman Rite doesn't teach anybody
anything.  The official teachers of the Church are the bishops in
union with the Pope, and they can be and are of all the rites.  For
example, Pius X1 belonged to the Ambrosian Rite, as did Paul VI.  John
Paul II recently celebrated Mass in the Mozarabic Rite, although he
comes from the Roman Rite.
 
Secondly, the Church doesn't "teach the laity".  The Church teaches
all her members. The Church is not "us" vs. "them".  We are all the
Church and members of one another, in need of the gospel of God.
 
Thirdly, the Church does not "teach" anything whatever about
Celibacy.  The objects of Church teaching are 1) doctrine and
2) morals.  Celibacy is neither.  Celibacy is a matter of Church
legislation. The law of celibacy which has been universal in the
Latin rites since the Middle Ages, is of ecclesiastical origin and
may therefore be dispensed in individual cases.  Conceivably, it
could be entirely abrogated.
 
An easily available treatment of this matter (it is scarcely an
issue) is the article "Celibacy" in the New Catholic Encyclopedia.
 
                                Sincerely in Christ,
 
                                        Father Mateo