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Expert: - 6/27/2007


Question
I have two questions.

Why aren't preists and clergymembers allowed to have wives, why do they have to be celebate, what is the history and reasoning to it?

I understand that sex is supposed to be an act of self giving and you're supposed to open to new life if it's Gods will but why is birth control prohibeted in the catholic church? If new life is Gods will then it will happen weather you're useing birth control or not. So what is the reason behind it and the history behind it.

thank you for your help.

Answer
Let's start with birth control. I'm not sure that births will happen if someone properly uses, say, a condom. We can choose to go against God's will too, don't forget.

Now as for the history of celibacy and sex-related issues, this is incredibly complicated. And the answer will depend on who you are speaking to. So I'm going to provide several good links that you can look over and, I would imagine, find what you're looking for.

Birth control:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_control

http://members.aol.com/revising/history.html

Celibacy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerical_celibacy#Celibacy_in_the_Roman_Catholic_Ch...

http://www.futurechurch.org/fpm/history.htm

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03481a.htm

http://atheism.about.com/od/romancatholicism/a/celibacy_2.htm

http://www.tfp.org/TFPForum/catholic_perspective/tracing_the_glorious_origins_of...

I hope this helps.  

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Michael Clark, Ph.D.

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I'm a progressive Catholic--not a liberal, conservative nor a single-minded critic of Catholicism. I simply believe that adults in the 21C should use the mind God gave them and not just repeat ancient and medieval modes of thinking.

I can probably help with questions that intelligently and respectfully question those aspects of Catholicism that are not infallible. But if you're looking for someone to vigorously defend or perhaps refute Catholicism as a whole, that's not me. So please ask another expert.

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I run an educational website earthpages.org and know what the web has to offer. I might suggest hyperlinks and/or book titles as I have a Ph.D. in Religious Studies and a considerable personal library.

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Print Media:
My table from "Religions and Cults" at earthpages.org is reproduced with permission in L. Lindsey, S. Beach and B. Ravelli, Core Concepts in Sociology, 2nd ed., p. 157

World Wide Web:
My online article "Letter to God" coauthored with Buddhist monk, E. Raymond Rock, appears on several different spirituality-based websites, including http://tinyurl.com/db7a5o

I've interviewed, as a Christian, a self-proclaimed mystic: http://tinyurl.com/cawykr

My articles appeared at the former New View magazine nuvunow.ca and are published at earthpages.org.

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Ph.D. in Religious Studies
M.A. in Comparative Religion
B.A. Hon. in Psychology/Sociology
For more info, please see my CV and letters of recommendation and my blog at michaelwclark.com.

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