why do Catholic Priests say that the Church is their bride?

Because they are married to the Church in one sense, and are part of the Church in another.

Priest, by virtue of their ordination, act in the "person of Christ" at certain times. During the consecration, in the confessional and any time they are administering a sacrament.

You are placing a human understanding onto something that is spiritual. It isn't a physical bride, but the union of marriage in the spiritual sense, meaning the total commitment and giving of self to another.

If your memory of what this priest said "a few years back" is accurate, and if you quote it correctly here, you'll find your answer. What the Priest said was that Jesus' Church, the Roman Catholic Church, is His (Jesus') bride, not the Priest's bride. Every Roman Catholic knows that, and once you see the answer in your own words, you'll realize that the Priest's answer has absolutely nothing to do with celibacy. God Bless you.

numerous denominations do no longer enable the Bridal refrain aka right here Comes the Bride. that is seen a pagan music via Lutheran Missouri Synod contributors. Wagner had a recognition as an anti-Semite so it is not performed at Jewish ceremonies. maximum Catholic church homes have a rule banning secular track in a spiritual ceremony. it is likewise an "unlucky" music in that it grew to become into performed in an opera. The opera featured an rather short marriage which leads to loss of life in the past the consummation.

It's based on Eph. 5:23 - 32 which talks about how the Church is the bride of Christ:

"For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself the savior of the body. As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. So (also) husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. "For this reason a man shall leave (his) father and (his) mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church."

Since the priest is a representation of Christ on earth. He acts "in persona Christi" and so the analogy is that the priest is married to the church. It's unfortunate that in today's society such an analogy leads to a sexual connotations - when really it's about service and devotion and unity. As the Church we are devoted and united to Christ. The priest is then devoted and united to the church - dedicating his life to the service of it's members (service to the bride of Christ).

I think but I may be wrong here that it pertains more to Catholic nuns rather than priests. As bride is a feminine word and not masculine. Bride meaning married to in this case the Church.

http://whateverycatholicshouldknow.com/wecsk/conve...

?? Because it says it in the bible. And its true. The Church is the bride of priests. She is their Holy Matrimony. She is what they focus on. She is their spouse.

The Church is the priests' object of love, they serve her and cherish her. That is why they call her their bride, it is figurative. There is nothing sexual about it, there is nothing gross about it.

The church, consisting of all of the saints in Jesus are collectively the bride of Christ. No one can claim a superior position in the marriage.

Yeah, I think the analogy is maybe lost in translation or something. Perhaps it made perfect sense in Jesus' time frame to call it that. But I agree...bride of Christ is sort of an icky phrase. I suspect it was trying to imply a close bond of intimacy and familiarity.

Its a metaphor. It means that the object of their love is the work of the church and that it completes them the way the sacrament of marriage does for other folk.