CATHOLIC CHURCH: YESTERDAY AND TODAY

Catholic Church issues involving priests generally, celibacy, marriage, women being ordained priests, abortion, and homosexuality had their place in another time, also.

The Catholic Church of today is not the Catholic Church of yesterday in many regards. A few of the differences will be demonstrated. Many the result of man's interpretation of the Bible rather than God's word.

There were no priests till the end of the first century. The apostles were holy men. Men of God. They bore no specific title.

By the end of the first century, Christ's followers had multiplied. The holy men were of the opinion they themselves should be referred to with a special designation. Something to demonstrate they were above the masses. 

The title Priest came into being. With it, ordinations.

The issue of celibacy arose. Not a problem in God's time. It took a thousand years to rear its head. Certain apostles were married. Peter, the first Pope, was. Subsequent holy men were. They enjoyed sex and fathered children.

No where in the Bible does it say God insisted on celibacy for priests. There were no priests for almost 100 years after Christ's death. For almost a 1,000 years thereafter, priests had been enjoying marital bliss. Some even outside their marriage bonds.

In 1074 AD, Pope Gregory VII declared candidates for ordination could not marry. Few, if any, listened to him. Priests continued to marry in large numbers for another hundred years. Celibacy was mandated and made part of Canon Law in 1139 AD at the Second Lateran Council. 

Between 1074 AD and 1139 AD, Pope Urban II became a zealous advocate of celibacy. So much so that he had priests' wives sold into slavery and their children abandoned.

Priests continued marrying and/or having sex for several hundred more years. In decreasing numbers. By 1200 AD, fifty percent of priests were married and fifty per cent not. So much for the Second Lateran Council.

History suggests Popes were married  through 1585 AD. Some fathered children. Six Popes subsequent to 1139 AD  produced illegitimate children. One Pope four, another three, and several two. 

It is well established that four Popes had male lovers. Open and notorious. One slept in the same bed with his partner in the Vatican of that time.

The most interesting thing learned is that celibacy is not a vow. Rather it is a promise. A promise a new priest makes to a Bishop.

Abortions have their place in Church history. Not as represented today. Rather as what existed in reality at a certain time.

It was 836 AD. Priests had been  having sex with nuns and other women for a number of years.. Some of the ladies became pregnant. The monasteries and nunneries became abortion mills. Infanticide was an agenda item. Very young babies were killed. Sort of makes one think.....Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

In any event, the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle decreed in 836 AD that there were to be no more abortions and child killings in monasteries and nunneries.

There were women priests. Would you believe! From the time of Christ to some time into the fourteenth century. And further in time. There was another Council in the fourteenth century that declared women could no longer be ordained priests. Yes, they had actually been ordained just as men up to that time.

Few payed attention to no more female priests. A hundred years later, women were still being ordained, hearing confessions, etc.

By the fourteenth century, male presence and power was increasing within the Church. The hierarchy began to look down upon women as priests.The female gender was considered less than the male one. Women were no longer worthy of being priests.

The hierarchy relied on the Bible for its new found position regarding female priests. Man's interpretation as opposed to God's. Where was that interpretation for fourteen hundred years?

A modern day inconsistency also exists.

In 1972, Czech women were imprisoned in large numbers by the Communists. Ludmilla Jarorova and several other Czech women were ordained as priests to serve the needs of those women.

For centuries, Popes themselves married and procreated.

The purpose of this article is to make  people aware there is a difference between God's Laws and what man later determines to be God's Law. Some believe the inconsistencies, the law changes, are the result of those who considered themselves special. The men in the Church. There have been such men in every century. Once in power, they abrogate power and authority to themselves. The result is the screwed up Catholic Church of today.