There has been some comment in the combox about a Catholic priest named Fr Francis Mary Stone. I was unfamiliar with this story and did a quick check. He is the host of an EWTN program, and has stepped down to \u2018discern his vocation\u2019 after \u2018getting involved with a widow.\u2019<\/p>\n
Our Scottish friend asks, \u201c\u2026just because Fr Francis falls in love, is he any less a priest?\u201d<\/p>\n
What precisely does James mean by such a question?<\/p>\n
Is the man any less a priest for having fallen in love? He\u2019s still a priest since the sacrament of ordination imparts an unchangeable ontological character on a man. You can\u2019t suddenly be \u2018less a priest\u2019 or \u2018more a priest\u2019. You\u2019re a priest forever. That\u2019s it. Morally speaking, you could be a better priest or a worse priest, but you can\u2019t be less of a priest. It\u2019s like saying one is \u2018a little less pregnant.\u2019<\/p>\n
Perhaps James means Fr Stone might be a worse priest for having fallen in love? That all depends what \u2018falling in love\u2019 means. It could mean anything from yielding to lustful temptation or infatuation or chaste affection or genuine love for the first time. Since \u2018falling in love\u2019 is such a subjective term it is difficult to make any call. It is also difficult to accept \u2018falling in love\u2019 as necessarily a good thing if we don\u2019t have a definition of what \u2018falling in love\u2019 actually means.<\/p>\n
If however, \u2018falling in love\u2019 means the man broke his solemn promise to remain celibate for the sake of the kingdom of God then he isn\u2019t less of a priest, but he is<\/span> less of a man.<\/p>\n He is less of a man not because he has fallen in love, but because he has broken a vow he made.<\/p>\n When a priest \u2018falls in love\u2019 he is , like any other man, supposed to submit his natural affections and desires to the restraints and disciplines that his society, his religion and his existing commitments demand. If a married man \u2018falls in love\u2019 with a woman other than his wife, if he is a Christian, he is supposed to resist his emotions and desires and not act on his \u2018love\u2019. If he breaks his marriage vow and sleeps with another woman we don\u2019t say, \u201cis he any less a husband for having fallen in love?\u201d In such a case he hasn\u2019t so much \u2018fallen in love\u2019 as fallen into sin.<\/p>\n None of this, of course, has any bearing at all on the question of whether or not Catholic priests should be celibate. That is a question that may be raised and a good discussion can be had, but we mustn\u2019t muddy that discussion with an incident where a man has broken a solemn vow made before God just because he has \u2018fallen in love.\u2019 (If that is indeed what happened)<\/p>\n If however, the priest in question, has \u2018fallen in love\u2019 and remains chaste until he is dispensed from his vow of celibacy and laicized, then marries the woman, then so be it. The Church has ways for this to happen.<\/p>\n In the meantime, let\u2019s pray for Fr Stone and mind our own business.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There has been some comment in the combox about a Catholic priest named Fr Francis Mary Stone. I was unfamiliar with this story and did a quick check. He is the host of an EWTN program, and has stepped down to \u2018discern his vocation\u2019 after \u2018getting involved with a widow.\u2019 Our Scottish friend asks, \u201c\u2026just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n