Petition for Optional Married Clergy

   We call on the Buddhists, Orthodox Churches, Catholic Church, and other religions to stop taking any promises or vows of celibacy, and to declare that clergy, brothers, and nuns are free to be married: 1. To give religions' workers normal family rights, and to relieve them from much loneliness, temptation to sin, deviation, and ignorance of family life; 2. For the safety of children and others; 3. To save religions millions in compensation; 4. To reinstate Roman Catholic or other clergy lost through marriage; 5. To staff clergy-less areas; and 6. To give good example in cultures turning away from marriage and towards concubinage.  Having a career and marriage before ordination would be usual, thus removing a pastoral barrier to dismissing sinful, or ineffective, clerics.  We are mindful of support for marriage (i) In the centuries-old practice of some religions and most branches of Judaism, Christianity and cognate faiths, (ii) By the clergy's continued rights in Orthodox Churches and the Catholic Eastern Rites, (iii) By Rome ordaining married clergy converts, and (iv) Bible: Matthew 19:5, Mark 10:6-7, 1 Corinthians 7:2-5, 7:10-11, and 9:5, (1 Timothy 3:2-7, and Titus 1: 5-9).  RC Canon Law confirms the ancient right of laypeople to "make their views known about matters which concern the good of the Church."