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virgopilot
Guest
A group of my fellow Catholic soldiers who are deployed to Afghanistan are interested in finding out the origins of the rules preventing priests from marrying. Thank you.
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Luke65
Guest
“You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.” (2 Timothy 2:1-4)
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fermat
Guest
You can follow this link to the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia which has a fairly exhaustive explanation. There is a ‘History of clerical celibacy’ that goes into the details.A group of my fellow Catholic soldiers who are deployed to Afghanistan are interested in finding out the origins of the rules preventing priests from marrying. Thank you.
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Semper_Zelare
Guest
Well to the best of my knowledge, the position is generally rooted in that Jesus wasn’t married. So, in efforts to be more like Jesus priests give up any relations with women.
I also know that there was some tipping point where at first just a few Christian leaders in the first century were not married (because most rabbis were married in the Jewish culture). But, by the 4th century celibate priests gained popularity because they were often more devoted to their ministry than married priests. However, if an unmarried man became a priest he could not marry, but a married man could remain married and become a priest at this time.
The official mandate forcing priests to be celibate are in the First and Second Lateran councils (1123 AD) and (1139). The first council forbids priests to be married or to live with women, etc. The second council tells people not to go to a church if the priest is doing these things… so it was enforcing the earlier one.
Hope this helps.
P.S. My brother recently shipped off to Basic in the navy. God bless y’all for what y’all are doing for our country.
:knight1:
I also know that there was some tipping point where at first just a few Christian leaders in the first century were not married (because most rabbis were married in the Jewish culture). But, by the 4th century celibate priests gained popularity because they were often more devoted to their ministry than married priests. However, if an unmarried man became a priest he could not marry, but a married man could remain married and become a priest at this time.
The official mandate forcing priests to be celibate are in the First and Second Lateran councils (1123 AD) and (1139). The first council forbids priests to be married or to live with women, etc. The second council tells people not to go to a church if the priest is doing these things… so it was enforcing the earlier one.
Hope this helps.
P.S. My brother recently shipped off to Basic in the navy. God bless y’all for what y’all are doing for our country.
:knight1:
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JaredM
Guest
I heard that there are some loop holes that allow you to be a catholic priest and married at the same time.
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Phemie
Guest
The only married Roman Catholic priests at this time are men who came to the Church as married ministers from another ecclesial community (Anglican, Episcopal, Lutheran, etc.), were accepted to the priesthood, studied and were ordained. If one of them should be widowed he would not be able to remarry.
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Iron_Donkey
Guest
Just to emphasize a few points, the link fermat gave has all the details.
-Celibacy is a discipline, that is it is changeable (theoretically anyway, I do not see this actually happening any time soon). There are several scripture passages that hint that celibacy is valuable, and the way that it is supposed to be valuable is even more applicable to the life of a cleric, but we do not claim that revelation mandates this rule.
-Clerical celibacy is really old, but it was not present from the beginning (as I recall).
-In some cases (such as protestant clergy that convert to Catholicism) it is possible for a married man to become a priest, but should his wife predecease him, he cannot remarry.
-The Orthodox (and maybe some of the Eastern Churches in communion with Rome, I’m not sure but one of them may be able to tell you) do not have clerical celibacy for priests, but do have celibate bishops.
Scripture says that celibacy can be valuable in a couple places. I seem to remember that Paul says so somewhere, and Jesus also talks about it in Mat 19:12 (Jesus speaks of those who make themselves eunuchs, but I’m fairly certain this is what he means.)
-Celibacy is a discipline, that is it is changeable (theoretically anyway, I do not see this actually happening any time soon). There are several scripture passages that hint that celibacy is valuable, and the way that it is supposed to be valuable is even more applicable to the life of a cleric, but we do not claim that revelation mandates this rule.
-Clerical celibacy is really old, but it was not present from the beginning (as I recall).
-In some cases (such as protestant clergy that convert to Catholicism) it is possible for a married man to become a priest, but should his wife predecease him, he cannot remarry.
-The Orthodox (and maybe some of the Eastern Churches in communion with Rome, I’m not sure but one of them may be able to tell you) do not have clerical celibacy for priests, but do have celibate bishops.
Scripture says that celibacy can be valuable in a couple places. I seem to remember that Paul says so somewhere, and Jesus also talks about it in Mat 19:12 (Jesus speaks of those who make themselves eunuchs, but I’m fairly certain this is what he means.)
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achmafooma
Guest
As far as I know, most/all Eastern Catholic Churches have married priests as the norm but, as you indicate, Bishops are chosen only from among the celibate. They are very similar to our Orthodox brethren in this respect.
The norm of clerical celibacy is essentially ‘just’ a tradition of the Roman Church. It comes from a combination of spiritual concerns (St. Paul encouraged celibacy, and Christ was celibate, and it appears that the Apostles were celibate) combined with practical concerns (no immediate family to distract from the Church’s mission, reduced cost-of-living, etc.). Most Priests I have known would explain it something like, “This isn’t a job, it’s a vocation…my whole life belongs to the Church.”
Because it is a traditional norm, not required by the Scripture, the rule could be relaxed or eliminated at any time…though I also don’t expect this to happen.
God bless you
and THANK YOU so much for your military service.
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Brendan
Guest
Just to clarify,
A Catholic man who is married may be ordained (to either the diaconate or presbyteriate)
It is simply a matter of Chruch discipline that the Roman Church does not ordained married men to be priests. Certain other Catholic Churches (such as the Byzantine) do choose to ordain married men to the priesthood.
The Roman\Latin Church chooses not to as a matter of discipline. From a practical standpoint in that single men are more able to be reassigned as needed than married men, and can devote themselves more fully to the pastoral needs of the parish
St. Paul writes of this in 1 Cor 7
(1 Cor. 7:32-4)
There are also spritual benefits to the priest in engaging in a perpertual fast from the goods of marriage. Christ Himself said in Matthew 19
If a person has the gift of being able to be celebate, he\she should do so. Christ said so. It is from these men that bishops choose their priests.
But being a matter of discipline, the Latin Church may change that as needs dictate. The Latin Church has chosen to do so already in particular circumstances, such as certain a Anglican or Lu
What CANNOT be changed is that once a person has been ordained to the priesthood that they are free to marry. This is true in all the Apostolic Churches, Catholic and Orthodox alike.
IT’s a one way street. Married men are allowed to become priests, but priest are not allowed to become married men.
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