Dear Mary:

I can find nothing negative about Fr. Bain except for the comments to Jimmy Akin's article. Certainly, if it was Fr. Bain that made those comments, he is clearly not thinking with the Church. But, there is no way to know if Fr. Bain actually made those comments.

Here are some of the comments made under the name of Fr. Richard Bain. Keep in mind that we do not know if Father actually made these statements:

 

 

Posted by Father  Richard Bain on Sunday, Jan 2, 2011 6:59 PM (EDT):

Canon 277 clearly states that celibacy is a “special gift of God.”  The  scandalizer is not the priest who NOT given this special gift falls in love and  gets married.  He is only confirming God’s word “It is not right for man to  be alone.”  The scandalizer is the Catholic Church who sins against this  word by not allowing the priests who clearly have not been given the gift of celibacy to marry. 

Saint Nicholas of Flue was given the special gift of inedia - living without  food or drink. This allowed him to devote every minute of his waking day to  prayer and to draw extremely close to God. He has been dead for over 400 years,  yet one still feels extraordinary peace and love when praying at his relic in  Sachsein, Switzerland. Why doesn’t the Church, while they are at it, demand that  all priests be inedicts?  And, if a priest is found eating anything but the  Eucharist take away his faculties and teach that if he continues to eat without  being laicized - which can take up to thirteen years - he will go to hell.

Father Richard Bain

Clearly this man is a troubled soul and perhaps a psychiatrically trouble mind.

As to the comments:  No one has a "right" to be a priest, no man is forced into celibacy. If one is not called to be celibate, then one is not called to be a priest in the Latin Rite. There is no such thing as a man called to be a married Priest in the Latin Rite.

There also has never in the history of the Western Church or the Eastern Church (where priests may be married) that someone ordained as a single man was ever allowed to get married. The state of the man at the time of the ordination seals his state, vis-a-vie, a married man may be ordained, but a man ordained as a single man may never be married.

There are exceptions to married priests in the Latin Rite. Priestly celibacy is a discipline and not a dogma thus exceptions can be made when the Pope decided. These, however, are extreme exceptions, and are usually about a priest or minister from the Church of England or Protestantism who converts and petitions Rome for ordination as Catholic Priests. This is extremely rare and not what this person making comments under Fr. Bain's name is referring to. Thus, that exception is really not part of the discussion here.

The discussion is about the ordinary men who want to be priests, thus the ordinary rules apply. Yes, as I mentioned, celibacy is a discipline, not a dogma, but God does not call someone to violate Church rules on the priesthood. God calls no one to rebellion in fact or in spirit. In fact, God has repeatedly said in the Bible, and in many private revelations, such as that of Sister Faustina, that He values obedience over sacrifice.

The way in which these comments are written, the language used, and the childish arguments made do not have the mark of an educated person, at least one in his right mind. I suspect that the comments are not that of Father Bain, but of an impostor who is trying to make their idiotic comments sound authoritative, or someone who is trying to impugn Father Bain out of revenge or some maliciousness, or is just someone in need of psychiatric care.

Bottomline: Yes, the comments are patently out-of-line and contrary to Church teaching, but we have no way of knowing who posted the comments.

Unless there are other statements that we know come from Father Bain for sure that confirm these sentiments, the sentiments made in the comments in question should be considered a hoax and not actually coming from Fr. Bain.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary