Long before Jesus Christ instituted the sacrament of holy orders, God the Father commanded Adam and Eve and their descendents to be fertile, increase, and multiply and fill the earth, and this command includes candidates for the priesthood in the Latin Rite. It is the author’s firm conviction that the law of celibacy is a serious violation a priest’s basic rights. Most men and women not only need to love God, but also to love a person of the opposite sex at the conjugal level. It is natural, it is healthy, it is most rewarding, and it is a right the church did not enact and require the vow of celibacy to help priests grow spiritually, but for all of the wrong reasons. Eliminate it NOW.

Long before Jesus Christ instituted the sacrament of holy orders, God the Father commanded Adam and Eve and their descendents to be fertile, increase, and multiply and fill the earth, and this command includes candidates for the priesthood in the Latin Rite. It is the author's firm conviction that the law of celibacy is a serious violation a priest's basic rights. Most men and women not only need to love God, but also to love a person of the opposite sex at the conjugal level. It is natural, it is healthy, it is most rewarding, and it is a right the church did not enact and require the vow of celibacy to help priests grow spiritually, but for all of the wrong reasons. Eliminate it NOW.

"You may want to live like a bachelor, but those days are behind you, chief. " So says the man in the mirror on those days when he just wants to hang out with his buddies and sip good bourbon or sit on the couch and watch an action movie. "Snap out of it." This internal dialogue isn't foreign to most husbands or dads - including the eight regular guys who share their stories in The Joys and Challenges of Family Life: Catholic Husbands and Fathers Speak Out. They've all dealt with the tough, crazy, scary, fun, and always humbling aspects of being a husband and dad in the 21st century, including: fatherhood for the first time (or lots of times), infertility, raising kids in the faith, technology and family life, the porn war and much more. Hang out with these men and find out how they are navigating all the stuff that makes up family life in contemporary society with the help of their Catholic faith.

Deals with the moral, psychological, and social challenges faced by Roman Catholic priests who left the active ministry in the 1960s and 1970s to get married--men who chose responsible sexual relationships over a life of obligatory celibacy.

These essays offer a historically rigorous dismantling of Western claims about the superiority of celibate priests. Although celibacy is often seen as a distinctive feature of the Catholic priesthood, both Catholic and Orthodox Churches in fact have rich and diverse traditions of married priests. The essays contained in Married Priests in the Catholic Church offer the most comprehensive treatment of these traditions to date. These essays, written by a wide-ranging group that includes historians, pastors, theologians, canon lawyers, and the wives and children of married Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox priests, offer diverse perspectives from many countries and traditions on the subject, including personal, historical, theological, and canonical accounts. As a collection, these essays push especially against two tendencies in thinking about married priesthood today. Against the idea that a married priesthood would solve every problem in Catholic clerical culture, this collection deromanticizes and demythologizes the notion of married priesthood. At the same time, against distinctively modern theological trends that posit the superiority, apostolicity, and “ontological” necessity of celibate priests, this collection refutes the claim that priestly ordination and celibacy must be so closely linked. In addressing the topic of married priesthood from both practical and theoretical angles, and by drawing on a variety of perspectives, Married Priests in the Catholic Church will be of interest to a wide audience, including historians, theologians, canon lawyers, and seminary professors and formators, as well as pastors, parish leaders, and laypeople. Contributors: Adam A. J. DeVille, David G. Hunter, Dellas Oliver Herbel, James S. Dutko, Patrick Viscuso, Alexander M. Laschuk, John Hunwicke, Edwin Barnes, Peter Galadza, David Meinzen, Julian Hayda, Irene Galadza, Nicholas Denysenko, William C. Mills, Andrew Jarmus, Thomas J. Loya, Lawrence Cross, and Basilio Petrà.

This collection of faith-filled reflections explores various topics related to being a Catholic man and father in today’s age. Integrating faith with marriage, parenting, and work, this resource offers a comprehensive understanding of a Catholic father’s identity and purpose through personal anecdotes, models of fatherhood in Jesus’ parables, Scriptural passages, and references to Church authority.