Should
Catholic priests be allowed to marry?
Kim: Jesus, I understand
the need for a true reform of the Catholic church, and I hope many
Catholics heed your words about the need
for reform. However, I would like to ask a few questions about
the sexual abuse issue. For example, should Catholic priests be allowed
to marry?
Jesus: I
am a spiritual teacher, and my concern is always for the spiritual growth
of the individual soul. Spiritual growth means the resolution of false
beliefs and emotional scars that prevent the soul from attaining wholeness,
also called holiness. This is an inner, psychological resolution that
cannot be attained as an automatic or mechanical effect of performing
certain outer actions. Therefore, forced celibacy has little value and
will be a burden to the souls who are not ready to abstain from sex.
Instead of leading to the resolution of psychological problems, it is
likely to reinforce such problems. This is precisely why the Church
has such a massive problem with sexual abuse.
What I am saying here is that the true purpose of life is to walk a
gradual path which leads to a higher state of consciousness. This path
can be compared to a staircase with many steps. As a soul ascends this
staircase, it will naturally begin to lose its attachment to, its desire
for and its interest in the things of this world, especially the sensory
pleasures produced by the physical body. In other words, it is natural
for a soul to gradually lose its desire for sex and place more attention
on the spiritual side of life.
If you survey humankind, you will see that some people have attained
this state of spirituality and have put the bodily desires behind them.
You will see that some people gradually overcome their attachment to
sex during one lifetime. Yet you will also see that there are many people
on this Earth who are not yet to ready to give up sex. And if a person
is not ready to do so, forcing oneself to abstain from sex is not likely
to help the spiritual growth of the soul. The abstinence from sex must
be based on a true inner resolution of the desire for sex rather than
a decision made with the outer mind and will.
It was my original intent and hope that the Christian movement would
offer people a gradual path leading to a higher state of consciousness,
namely the Christ consciousness. This growth should ideally be based
on an understanding, a true inner understanding, of the spiritual mysteries
of life.
When the soul receives a true understanding, it will find valid answers
to its questions about life. Those answers will bring true resolution
to the soul. The soul will gradually begin to align its beliefs with
the reality of life, and the soul will gradually resolve its emotional
wounds and hang-ups. Therefore, the soul will not need to force itself
to take certain outer actions. The soul will voluntarily choose those
outer actions because the soul realizes that they represent enlightened
self-interest.
What happened to the Catholic Church was that it deviated from my original
intent. The church became caught up in power plays, and as a result
some of my original teachings were removed. Therefore, the church could
not give people the true understanding that could lead them to a true
resolution. As a result, the church has fallen into a pattern of forcing
people to conform to outer doctrines and rigid rules for behavior.
Ideally, a church organization should provide a hierarchical structure
and allow people to gradually climb to higher levels of that structure
as they are able and willing. Such a structure would have different
levels based on different levels of spiritual attainment. For example,
the majority of the human population is not at a level where it would
be natural or even beneficial for them to abstain from sex. These people
should live in a normal family situation, as many of them already do.
A church needs a class of priests who minister to these people. This
would be the ordinary Catholic priests. If you are to effectively minister
to people, you must know the problems faced by those people. How can
you know such problems unless you have experienced them yourself? In
other words, if you are to effectively minister to families and married
couples with children, it will be extremely helpful if you are married
and have your own children to deal with on a daily basis.
It is a simple fact that many Catholic priests are ineffective when
it comes to ministering to married couples, families and children. This
is due to the fact that these priests do not have personal experience
as the basis for their ministry.
So to answer your question, it was never my intent to create an organization
that required celibacy of ordinary priests. This was a later addition
that was not in accordance with my will and my intent. It came about
as a result of the need for power and control.
Let me now return to the idea of a hierarchical structure based on different
levels of spiritual attainment. As a soul climbs the spiritual path,
it will naturally lose, through an inner resolution, is attachment to
the things of this world. Therefore, a church organization must provide
a way whereby people with this level of attainment can live in an environment
that allows them to focus on spiritual activities. This can be done
through monastries or other settings that are designed specifically
for people who do not wish to live in a family situation. It can also
be done through organizations that minister to people, and a magnificent
example is the organization created by Mother Teresa.
Celibacy should be the natural lifestyle for such organizations, but
not as a forced outer rule. Instead, it must be a voluntary thing that
is based on true inner resolution and spiritual growth. People who are
not at this level, simply would not choose to live in that kind of environment.
One might say that a church organization should have an outer aspect
that is geared towards ministering to people who live in normal family
relations. The church should also have an inner aspect that is geared
towards providing the maximum opportunity for leading a life focused
on spiritual activities.
Let me issue a word of caution. It is true that as a soul matures on
the spiritual path, it will gradually and naturally lose its attachment
to worldly desires. Yet this does not necessarily mean that all spiritually
advanced souls should be unmarried or even live in celibacy. Being unmarried
and living in forced celibacy will not automatically produce spiritual
growth, and this is the erroneous belief promoted by the Catholic Church.
The fallacy of this belief has been clearly proven by the exposure of
sexual abuse by priests. This abuse also proves the dangers of willfully
forcing a person to conform to rigid outer rules when that soul is not
ready for such a lifestyle.
My point is that the leaders of a church should not necessarily be celibate.
Once again, you can only minister effectively to people if you know
their problems. Therefore, a church can have leaders, even high-ranking
leaders, that are married. In fact, I am not saying that as the soul
matures spiritually, it should get divorced and live in celibacy. You
can very well remain married and either practice celibacy or have a
more balanced level of sexual activity than most couples.
So I do not want to see an organizational culture which states that
those who practice celibacy are somehow above or more spiritually advanced
than those who do not. I do not encourage elitism in any form because
it fosters pride and pride is in opposition to spiritual growth. Remember
the statement, “He who would be greatest amongst you, let him
be the servant of all.”
Related topics:
female priests, how
religion must change in this age, how the Catholic Church is based
on Peter's mistakes.
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© 2003 by Kim Michaels |
