I agree with you. They are not being forced to be celibate. They make the choice and it is a gift from God.
No, I don't think you do. Once again, a man who wants to be a priest/leader, according to the RCC, must be celibate to do so whether he wants to or not. If a man can't handle this he cannot be a priest/leader. This is unbiblical. The Biblical choice is between being a celibate leader, (more advantageous, but not required), and being a leader who is not celibate, (some disadvantages, but completely permissible).
Who said there is a biblical requirement for celibate leaders?
No one. There isn't one -- yet Rome requires it anyway. That's been my contention all along.
*I'm know some have wondered about my stance on a particular issue, so I'll clear it up now. The RC 'priesthood' is not only an unbiblical office, it dishonors the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ.
Heb 10:12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
Heb 10:13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
Heb 10:14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
The function of a priest was to offer sacrifices to God on behalf of the people he represented. Christ, our final and perfect priest offered a single sacrifice that perfects those He represents for all time. The RCC pretends to offer continuous 'unbloody' yet 'propitiatory' sacrifices via the 'priesthood.' Unbloody
and propitiatory is an oxymoron and doesn't make the practice acceptable.
Heb 9:11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation)
Heb 9:12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
Heb 9:22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Heb 9:23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
Heb 9:25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own,
Heb 9:26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
