Celibacy of Priests

[BigDL75]

I’m a Catholic, and I have been having a lot of reservations about the Church lately. I have been considering leaving the Church to become a Protestant, but I am not sure yet. I will admit, I don’t know as much about the Church as I would like, and I have been doing some research lately. At this point, I am leaning (by just a little bit) towards staying Catholic. But I realize that for some reason or another, this experience is not an accident; I know I will grow as a Christian because of it. Anyway, one thing I keep wondering about is the celibacy of priests. I believe this policy was instated in 1076 AD, if I am not mistaken (and I may be!). What was the rationale behind this? What were some primary reasons? Did a council decide this? A pope? Many of the resources I have come across cite the following:
-Jesus’ words in Matthew 19:1-12 about marriage and divorce.
-St. Paul’s teachings
What I get from this is that celibacy is good for some and not good for others. Nowhere do I get that celibacy should be a requirement for clergy members. I do not understand where this idea came from. Could someone please help? Thanks so much!

 

[Church_Militant]

Hey Big,

Don’t leave the church, in fact don’t even seriously consider it. I did and regret it. Read my story here.

Did you happen to search the forums for this topic? Have a look at this and here.

If I can help get you answers that you need please feel free to contact me by PM or e-mail and I’ll do whatever I can.
You’re in the right place to get the answers that you seek.

BTW here’s a list of other good resources.

The Catholic Home Study Service offers FREE Catholic courses that are second to none. The Bible Christian Society offers FREE Catholic Bible studies on CD or as MP3 downloads and the notes on the studies are available under “Booklets” and “2 Minute Apologetics”. Excelent stuff, and I recommend that you start with John Martignoni’s conversion story. And last but not least, the CA online library has great articles and a topical search engine. These should get ya started if you really want good answers. Maybe start with Celibacy and the Priesthood.
Pax tecum,

 

[Vigis]

I am a former Catholic and am going to join the Church again in a couple of years (can not right now; house rules ). My father is a Methodist pastor. As a pastor and a father it puts much stress on him. Sometimes it even distracts him from doing the work God wants him to do. It even puts a lot of stress on the family. Celibate pastors or priests are much more capable of doing the work God wants them to do. The idea is basically to have the most capable men to be clergy which means to the be celibate. The Catholic Church, if it wants to, can allow Catholic priests to marry (not the ones who have taken a vow of celibacy of course). Their is no wrong in that. I hope this makes things more understandable. If not then please ask me to explain things better. God speed.

 

[Atreyu]

I’m a Catholic, and I have been having a lot of reservations about the Church lately. I have been considering leaving the Church to become a Protestant, but I am not sure yet.

I would counsel waiting until you do know a bit more about your Church.

I will admit, I don’t know as much about the Church as I would like, and I have been doing some research lately.

You’re at the right place! You could also try Karl Keating’s book, Catholicism and Fundamentalism if you want to read something moderately heavy on theology that compares the teachings of Catholicism to the teachings others (especially Fundamenalists) claim the Church teaches. The late archbishop Fulton Sheen said something along the lines of “millions of Americans hate what they think the Catholic Church is, while only a few hundred hate the real Catholic Church”. What I’m trying to say is make sure you know what the Church teaches, before you decide to reject it (if you choose to do so). Secondly, the best place to learn what the Church teaches is from Catholic teachings, so they should be your first port-of-call, especially the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which you can find here. The Catechism is an invaluable reference book, that briefly describes the Catholic teaching on a large number of topics. Now, back to your post…

At this point, I am leaning (by just a little bit) towards staying Catholic. But I realize that for some reason or another, this experience is not an accident; I know I will grow as a Christian because of it. Anyway, one thing I keep wondering about is the celibacy of priests. I believe this policy was instated in 1076 AD, if I am not mistaken (and I may be!). What was the rationale behind this? What were some primary reasons? Did a council decide this? A pope? Many of the resources I have come across cite the following:
-Jesus’ words in Matthew 19:1-12 about marriage and divorce.
-St. Paul’s teachings
What I get from this is that celibacy is good for some and not good for others. Nowhere do I get that celibacy should be a requirement for clergy members. I do not understand where this idea came from. Could someone please help? Thanks so much!

First of all, priests have never ever been allowed to get married once ordained. This is true both in the West (the latin rite of the Catholic Church) and the East (the Eastern rites of the Catholic Church of which there are about twenty or so, along with all the various Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches, that share a common ancenstry with the Catholic Church). On the other hand, initially married priests were allowed to be ordained, and this is a practice that still continues in the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Eastern rites of the Catholic Church! These Eastern rites are in full communion with the latin rite of the Catholic Church (what some people call the “Roman Catholic Church”), and so this practice of ordaining married priests is completely legitimate.

Now, the reason why I bolded the word “practice” is for the very reason that ordaining married priests or choosing not to ordain married priests is a practice, and a practice only - it is not a doctrine. Each rite of the Catholic Church (or the Orthodox Churches) has authority over the members of that rite, with respect to discipline and practice, such that the magisterium of that rite (bishops) can choose to regulate such practices. In other words, the latin rite of the Catholic Church could choose to change her mind with respect to ordaining married priests, and there would be no problem with this, as the magisterium of this rite (headed by the pope) has every right to change this practice. Indeed, there actually are some married priests in the latin rite, as some married Anglican priests have been allowed to continue to be priests after converting.

As for when the practice started, I really don’t have much idea. But I’m certain it started well before 1076 AD. In fact I’m pretty sure that celibacy has been around since before the time of Augustine of Hippo, who converted to the latin rite of the Catholic Church at the end of the fourth century AD. I only know this from what I have read in his book Confessions, so I’m hoping someone else can let you know when it was promulgated and by whom. I would assume it was instituted by a local council in the latin rite, headed by the pope.

 

[Atreyu]

By the way, welcome to the forums! I hope you enjoy your time here, it can become very addictive!

 

[Sean_Boyle]

Celibacy of Priests is a discipline for at least the latin rite church, not a doctrine. It “can” change. Hopefully it never will.

There are some married priest in the latin rite church believe it or not. A small number of Angelican priest have returned to the Church as married priests after the nomal priestly formation with the approval of the bishop.

The percentage of priest not maintaining their priestly vows are roughly the same as married men not keeping the vows of marriage. Priest are people just like us. They live a life of service to you and I. This idea of service and lack of self is something that very few or us layman can master. That is exacly how priests are call to live. The writting of St. Paul concerning celibacy is one of the reason why celibacy became the preferred practice.

Think of priestly ceilbacy in these terms if it helps. A priest lives a life of service to us or his parish. We are his family. He is our spiritural father. Priests are on the go from early in the morning until mid to late evenings on most days. They get one day off a week if they are lucky. By the end of the day most priests are both phyiscally and mentally exhausted from ministering in the parish life.

It would be unfair to expect a priest to do everything he does for us all then make time for a wife and family as well. There is litterly no time left for anything else in their lives now.

Without a family a priest can devout his full attention to the needs of the parish. That is his calling. That is how he lives his life in service to us.

God Bless our priests.
Keep the Faith!!

 

[Atreyu]

The percentage of priest not maintaining their priestly vows are roughly the same as married men not keeping the vows of marriage.

Sean I disagree with this one part of your post; I would claim that the percentage of priests not maintaining their priestly vows is much smaller than the number of married men not keeping their vows of marriage. Do you have a source for this?

 

[Sean_Boyle]

Sean I disagree with this one part of your post; I would claim that the percentage of priests not maintaining their priestly vows is much smaller than the number of married men not keeping their vows of marriage. Do you have a source for this?

Sorry, no I don’t. I’ve heard that before not sure were. I shouldn’t have been so quick to use it here. My fault, sorry for that. That’s how Dan Rather lost his job, isn’t it.

I would like to think the percentage that keep their priestly vows is much larger as well.

Thank you for that out; it certainly was an error in judgement on my part.

 

[Atreyu]

Sorry, no I don’t. I’ve heard that before not sure were. I shouldn’t have been so quick to use it here. My fault, sorry for that. That’s how Dan Rather lost his job, isn’t it.

I would like to think the percentage that keep their priestly vows is much larger as well.

Thank you for that out; it certainly was an error in judgement on my part.

No worries! We all make mistakes

 

[StFrancissaveus]

I’m a Catholic, and I have been having a lot of reservations about the Church lately. I have been considering leaving the Church to become a Protestant, but I am not sure yet. I will admit, I don’t know as much about the Church as I would like, and I have been doing some research lately. At this point, I am leaning (by just a little bit) towards staying Catholic. But I realize that for some reason or another, this experience is not an accident; I know I will grow as a Christian because of it. Anyway, one thing I keep wondering about is the celibacy of priests. I believe this policy was instated in 1076 AD, if I am not mistaken (and I may be!). What was the rationale behind this? What were some primary reasons? Did a council decide this? A pope? Many of the resources I have come across cite the following:
-Jesus’ words in Matthew 19:1-12 about marriage and divorce.
-St. Paul’s teachings
What I get from this is that celibacy is good for some and not good for others. Nowhere do I get that celibacy should be a requirement for clergy members. I do not understand where this idea came from. Could someone please help? Thanks so much!

The idea is clearly stated In the 2nd letter to Timothy, Chapter 5, verses 1-5. the idea I was always taught (and i think this has been said but it bears repeating) is a married priest cannot fulfill his duties as well as an unmarried priest. Married men have not only themselves and their parishoners to worry about, but their own families as well. This places a horrible burden upon any man, no matter how close to God he is. Again, just one reason. keep the faith!

 

[Montalban]

I’m a Catholic, and I have been having a lot of reservations about the Church lately. I have been considering leaving the Church to become a Protestant, but I am not sure yet.

Which Protestant church?

I will admit, I don’t know as much about the Church as I would like, and I have been doing some research lately. At this point, I am leaning (by just a little bit) towards staying Catholic. But I realize that for some reason or another, this experience is not an accident; I know I will grow as a Christian because of it. Anyway, one thing I keep wondering about is the celibacy of priests. I believe this policy was instated in 1076 AD, if I am not mistaken (and I may be!). What was the rationale behind this? What were some primary reasons? Did a council decide this? A pope? Many of the resources I have come across cite the following:
-Jesus’ words in Matthew 19:1-12 about marriage and divorce.
-St. Paul’s teachings
What I get from this is that celibacy is good for some and not good for others. Nowhere do I get that celibacy should be a requirement for clergy members. I do not understand where this idea came from. Could someone please help? Thanks so much!

The odd thing here (as far as I can see) that all the arguments the RCC makes for celibacy are undermined by them; because all the eastern Catholic churches allow it.

 

[Montalban]

The idea is clearly stated In the 2nd letter to Timothy, Chapter 5, verses 1-5. the idea I was always taught (and i think this has been said but it bears repeating) is a married priest cannot fulfil his duties as well as an unmarried priest. Married men have not only themselves and their parishioners to worry about, but their own families as well. This places a horrible burden upon any man, no matter how close to God he is. Again, just one reason. keep the faith!

Which is an argument that many eastern Catholics might find insulting - because in effect you’re saying that their priests are second-best (not able to give as good a community service as their western and celibate brothers)

 

[RyanL]

If you would like to read the Church in her own words, here’s a link to the Curia’s document Biblical Foundations of Priestly Celibacy, which includes more reasons than have so far been presented.

God Bless, and welcome to the forums,
RyanL

 

[Aureole]

BigDL75, you’re right in saying you’ll grow as a Christian by asking questions like these. Leaving the Church is not something to be done outside of much prayer and research. God grant you the answers you seek.

Now, about priestly celibacy, you should start with the document RyanL linked to. I’ll give my brief understanding of it now, which may help you search deeper. Remember that St. Paul was celibate; he counselled it as did our Lord. You probably know of relevant passages so I will spare you a list (Besides the document linked above will provide you all of the ones I could miss). I can’t speak for any of the Eastern traditions so note that I’m only specifying Latin tradition. You’ll have to ask Montalban or another Eastern Christian about the East.

The idea of priestly celibacy comes directly from our Lord. He is the High Priest and was also celibate. Priests today share in the priesthood of the High Priest (Our Lord) and because He was celibate they are celibate. A priest ought to be an image of our Lord; celibacy helps us (The unordained) to see that image.

Another thing I recall is that celibacy is a sacrifice of something good and holy for something better, IE. Marriage and children for heaven. That is not to say that a married couple will not attain heaven, there are many examples to the contrary. What it does show is that celibacy anticipates heaven, where there will be no marriage. A celibate sacrifices something of the world (Marriage) in order to bring something of heaven to the world. A celibate priest is a sign of the Kingdom to come.

Priestly celibacy helps us to see the “goal” so to speak. A celibate priest is a worldly sign of something heavenly, namely Christ.

Anyway, I’m explaining this poorly so I think I’ll stop. You’ll find much better explanations in Church documents. I can’t remember specific documents but I’ll take a look around and link them here if I find them. Just a few very quick answers to some of your questions and I’ll stop.

Many early Church Councils discussed celibacy. I apologize for not being able to recall what ones specifically. I’ll make a search and link any information.

 

[jemfinch]

The odd thing here (as far as I can see) that all the arguments the RCC makes for celibacy are undermined by them; because all the eastern Catholic churches allow it.

How would that undermine the arguments for celibacy? The arguments for clerical celibacy are the same as the arguments for the higher calling of celibacy.

Which is an argument that many eastern Catholics might find insulting - because in effect you’re saying that their priests are second-best (not able to give as good a community service as their western and celibate brothers)

Not at all. In fact, I know some Eastern Priests (celibate, notably) who would agree with the Roman Church’s stance that celibacy is a higher calling than married life.

In fact, it seems that, at least implicitly, even the Orthodox hold to this view, since Orthodox (and Eastern Catholic) bishops are not permitted to be married.

Jeremy

 

[Evan]

I read somewhere (It may have been This Rock) that the requirement that only single men be considered for the priesthood in the western church began around 1000.

The reason was that there were a lot of priests with mistresses in addition to wives. A scandal, not living a chaste life. This needed to be delt with.

So the requirement was set to look for only those who could live completely celebate lives. If you could not, then wed and devote yourself to God through your family life.

Now to take care of another scandal: Homosexual men who become priests but cannot live a chaste life.

The solution to both problems would be to have a perfect view into the applicants soul as to being able to keep a vow of chastity.

 

[mlchance]

The percentage of priest not maintaining their priestly vows are roughly the same as married men not keeping the vows of marriage.

Then the large majority of priests are faithful to their vows. Good for them, and shame on those who aren’t.



– Mark L. Chance.

 

[rr1213]

I’m a Catholic, and I have been having a lot of reservations about the Church lately. I have been considering leaving the Church to become a Protestant, but I am not sure yet. I will admit, I don’t know as much about the Church as I would like, and I have been doing some research lately. At this point, I am leaning (by just a little bit) towards staying Catholic. But I realize that for some reason or another, this experience is not an accident; I know I will grow as a Christian because of it. Anyway, one thing I keep wondering about is the celibacy of priests. I believe this policy was instated in 1076 AD, if I am not mistaken (and I may be!). What was the rationale behind this? What were some primary reasons? Did a council decide this? A pope? Many of the resources I have come across cite the following:
-Jesus’ words in Matthew 19:1-12 about marriage and divorce.
-St. Paul’s teachings
What I get from this is that celibacy is good for some and not good for others. Nowhere do I get that celibacy should be a requirement for clergy members. I do not understand where this idea came from. Could someone please help? Thanks so much!

The Church’s rule on celibacy for priests has never made sense to me. You look at what Paul wrote and he advises for being celibate (as he was) but, as we all know, also said the it was better to be married than to burn. Elsewhere in scripture the sanctity of marriage is upheld, even by Christ himself. Even most disturbing (to the Catholic view I believe) are the passages where scripture explicitly allows for married clergy. (Overseer shall be a man of no more than one wife). Peter himself was married, as indicated by the fact that his mother in law served the disciples. Finally, the Catholic Church itself recognizes that the prohibition against married priests is a rule, not doctrine, and the Church even has married priests who converted from other Churches.

So, ultimately, what do you have here? You have a Church preference for celibate clergy taking precedence over the explicit Word of God that expressly allows clergy to be married. That’s just wrong.

 

[scylla]

Many anti-catholic sites come up with a date and then say this is when the Catholic Church decided to do this.This is very common and an example of pure stupidity in action.

Why the heck would the Church have to invent a discipline one thousand years later, if it is described in the Bible? This is like saying that the Catholic Church invented the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist when transubstantiantion was defined.

Does this mean that the Church never believed the belief before they defended it’s existance? This is like saying that the Church never believed in male priests before John Paul defended it in 1994 with Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.

The Church usually defines parts of the faith as people come up with new ideas contrary to the faith.

Here is an example:

Lets say a guy comes along, lets call him Marty Lucifer and he decides to make up some beliefs, the Church will have to defend the true faith, like this, by stating that sin actually matters and is not automatically forgiven as you commit them. It is not ok to commit adultery 100 times in a day, and automatically be saved without repentance.

God Bless
Scylla

 

[FCEGM]

The Church’s rule on celibacy for priests has never made sense to me. You look at what Paul wrote and he advises for being celibate (as he was) but, as we all know, also said the it was better to be married than to burn. Elsewhere in scripture the sanctity of marriage is upheld, even by Christ himself. Even most disturbing (to the Catholic view I believe) are the passages where scripture explicitly allows for married clergy. (Overseer shall be a man of no more than one wife). Peter himself was married, as indicated by the fact that his mother in law served the disciples. Finally, the Catholic Church itself recognizes that the prohibition against married priests is a rule, not doctrine, and the Church even has married priests who converted from other Churches.

So, ultimately, what do you have here? You have a Church preference for celibate clergy taking precedence over the explicit Word of God that expressly allows clergy to be married. That’s just wrong.

Does the Lord’s celibacy make sense to you?

You don’t seem to realize that although married men were chosen to be deacons, priests and bishops in the early Church they were required to be continent or be disbarred from the clergy, following the Apostolic example.

There were simple reasons for this: the Twelve were living celibate when they left their families to follow Our Lord and so were living with and like Him. Moreover, the Apostolic Offices of the Twelve was the highest office of the Church, which the Episcopal offices comes closest to but not equal to. The continence required of bishops followed the Twelve’s vocation to live totally for the Kingdom, as Our Lord says in Matthew 19 that some are eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom.

At first this did not mean separation from one’s wife, but only separation from conjugal sex; this normally would not be a problem, since priests and bishops, and even deacons were chosen from the elders, i.e., those whose children were already raised.

All this is clearly indicated in all the synodal decisions of the Church of the Fathers, East and West, as ably researched and presented by Fr. Cochini, S.J., in his Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy, Ignatius Press, 1990.

Also for you to consider is that celibacy stems from the nature of the priesthood itself, namely that a priest offers sacrifice (THE Sacrifice of the Mass). As we see already practiced in Old Testament times, the priests who rotated terms of service in the Temple were required to practice sexual fasting during the time of their service. (We see this at the beginning of St. Luke’s gospel when he presents us with the account of Zachary and Elizabeth and the conception of John (the Baptist).) No surprise, then, when it is seen as optimal that priests of the New Covenant who participate in the daily re-presentation of the One Sacrifice of the Lord are celibate. The ministerial priesthood established by Christ is of a higher order than that of the Old Covenant, since that of the New Covenant is a participation in Christ’s own High Priesthood which does not wax and wane.