A bit of lateral thinking on the priest shortage (Main Forum)

by James, Australia, Sunday, May 13, 2012, 17:51 (376 days ago) @ Sue

I was somewhat intrigued, Sue, by your subject line. Human beings usually "mature" in anything by practice.

I was wondering how you were going to get over the obvious conundrum of how someone who wants to be a priest (which requires celibacy) was going to "mature" when the only sex permitted by the Church was in a heterosexual relationship that only started once the union had been blessed by a priest whose hands had been smeared by the Holy Oils at Ordination.

As the Church does not permit divorce, that marriage could only be dissolved by death. But the statistics suggest that the husband has a much greater chance of predeceasing his wife. Which means that a minuscule number of men are going to outlive their wives and finally might be able to become priests just as Alzheimers is about to set in.

But I have another solution: if young men who want to be priests get married in the Church, with the intention of achieving sexual maturity, so that they can then become priests once that maturity is achieved, this is obviously not the sort of intention that gives rise to a valid marriage. The Church does not permit divorce, but it does allow annulment for a defective intention. So, these young men, convinced that they have been called by God, would be entitled to a annulment.

They get their annulment and then enter the seminary...the Church needs a bit of lateral thinking like this to solve some of its priest shortage problems, given that it is ontologically impossible for anyone without a penis to be a priest.