Bismillah:Assalamo Alikum.
Quote:Celibacy of the Priesthood is neither biblical nor is it a dogma. The Church has exercised her authority to restrict Latin Rite priests from marrying (for extremely good reasons) under the Code of Canon Law, however, this teaching can & may be changed in the future (but it's highly unlikely).
There's no shortage of priests. Never will be, Insha a Allah!
How can you say that when in fact marriages of priests was banned only in 1022 by Pope Benedict VIII.
I also found this information on the net.
Quote:<b>CATHOLIC PRIESTS WERE MONOGAMOUS AND POLYGAMOUS BUT MADE CELIBATE.
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due to the widespread illiteracy of the scriptures, especially that of the Gentile believers who were totally ignorant of the Torah, whatever the Catholic priests said were considered as God’s Law and divine truths. One area of total distortion was that of marital relationship. Surprising to almost all of us, it was common for Catholic priests to have multiple wives and mistresses. In 726AD, it was acceptable for a man with a sick wife to take a second wife so long as he looked after the first one. With concerns for protecting Church property from inheritance however, offspring could not inherit church property and it was later declared that all sons of priests were illegitimate. In 1022, Pope Benedict VIII banned marriages for priests (monogamous or polygamous). Finally in 1139, Pope Innocent II voided all marriages of priests and all new priests had to divorce their wives. All these were done to possess and protect money and church property. Making polygamy a sin and marriage unacceptable for a priest was a slow and purposeful process.
SOURCE
Salam
Wael.