A UPI story about the recent synod of Catholic bishops in Rome attempts to clarify the issue of priestly celibacy:
The Orthodox Church allows priests to marry, but those who do are not eligible to become bishops.
OK, here's where it gets tricky.
The Orthodox Church ordains married men.
Most if not all Protestant churches permit ordained men to marry (though it probably happens the other way more often), but we don't.
Notice the sequence: marry first, ordained to diaconate after (the priesthood, if it comes, comes after the diaconate).
I know it probably seems like an unimportant distinction to people who don't go to church, but we don't have "available" men leading Orthodox parishes. They're either married or monastic. I'm sure there are highfalutin theological explanations for this, but as a practical matter, having an eligible man as leader of a parish, hearing confessions, receiving the attentions of eligible (and ineligible) women, as well as the awareness that he might always be choosing "the one," frankly creeps me out.
Maybe that's just me. But I don't know the highfalutin theological explanation.
H/T: Father Joseph.
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