Why do Catholics let a bunch of celibate men in Rome tell you what to do in your marriage?

“Love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul,

and with all your MIND”--Matt 22:37

Welcome to the first installment of 3-minute Apologetics!

When we can know and defend our Faith, we are loving God with our entire MIND.  It helps us to LOVE him when we know Jesus (with our mind/understanding) and the Truth of the Faith he teaches.

Some people in my family, esp. the older generations, keep telling me, "I don't understand it.  I just believe it."  Good for them!  Their Faith is strong!  That is loving God with their entire heart.  But, (like most Catholic things), it's not an either/or thing, but a both/and.  It's not just "I don't understand, but I believe", but also, "I don't understand, but I know that there's more that I can understand".

So here we go:

Question:  Why do Catholics let a bunch of celibate men in Rome tell you what to do in your marriage?

"This kind of argument is often employed against the Catholic Church on teachings of sexual morality and their opposition to abortion.  Something to the effect of "The Catholic Church is run by celibate old men and exclude women from the priesthood, so whatever they might say about the issue is obviously misinformed."

The fact that priests are celibate is introduced to discredit the Church teaching on sexual morality before the Catholic view is even presented.  The attempt is to preemptively taint whatever the Church says as coming from "celibate old men who don't understand sex."

This is nonsense of course.  One does not have to engage in sexual acts to know that some of them are always harmful any more than one has to experiment personally with narcotics to learn some are always harmful..."  source.

We don't need our doctor to have experienced cancer in order for him to provide us with the "truths" of diagnosis or treatment.  (Note:  I'm not comparing marriage to cancer... I'm just sayin'!  )

Incidentally, Jesus was a celibate man who provided teaching on marriage, too! 

And remember, Luke 10:16 Jesus told his apostles:  "He who hears you, hears me".  The Bishops are the successors to his apostles.  So when they are speaking, as a united teaching authority in union with the Pope, Jesus is speaking!  And from this past Sunday's Gospel:  "The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you" (John 14).

For more in-depth study visit these websites:
Catholic Bible online

Catechism of the Catholic Church online

"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect" - 1 Peter 3:15