"Renewed Theology of Marriage & Priesthood"; Practical Arguments Are a "Red Herring": Fr. Dwight Longenecker

This is one of the best blogs on toward a renewed theology of marriage and priesthood:

Source: https://dwightlongenecker.com/a-married-priest-asks-do-marriage-and-priesthood-have-to-clash/ (7 Nov. 2019)

Excerpt 1:

The summary of my opinion is this: practical arguments for or against married priests are a red herring. I can come up with five really good practical reasons for married priests and then turn around and come up with five really good reasons not have married priests.

Excerpt 2:

Now here is where my experience as a married man might shed some light on this mystery. Of course it seems obvious at first that marriage and ordination must therefore clash with one another. But what if, in fact, they do not clash, but complement one another as we say they do within the sacramental economy. For the men who are married their marriage (which is the other sacrament of service) actually complements and even completes their ordination and their ordination completes and complements their marriage.

In this case the marriage strengthens and enlightens the man’s priesthood and his priesthood sheds light on and strengthens his marriage.

This has been my experience. It is an ordinary working out of both in my day to day life. Furthermore, it is the problems in both my marriage and priestly ministry that help to illuminate my failings and help me be (hopefully) both a better priest and a better husband and father. In a practical sense, when my own selfishness and egocentricity is revealed through marriage it also shows me how faulty my priestly ministry is as well. On a positive note, when the marriage is going well and we’re working as a team and living and loving together it helps me be a better priest.

I don’t suggest that this is a final word on the matter and I am not campaigning for more married priests. I think celibacy should still be the norm, but I do have some experience in the matter now after thirteen years, and what we need at this point is further discussion not simply about the utilitarian aspects or the practical concerns, but also about the theology of marriage and ordination.

If celibacy is to be favored, then it needs to be favored for more than just the practical concerns of availability. If the way is open to ordaining more married men, then that also needs to be admitted for better reasons than simply, “We need more priests.”

We need to see how ordination and marriage fit together if they do, and why they fit together if they do–not simply from a practical point of view, but so that married priests (if this is more openly permitted) will be a genuine gift to the church not only because we need more priests, but because a renewed theology of marriage and priesthood will strengthen both marriage and priesthood for the service of Christ’s church and the salvation of souls.