Is Marriage Inferior To Religious Life

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St Paul also does mention that it is better to not get married and to dedicate all ones life to God.
 
One sees in the Bible:

But she (a woman) will be saved through motherhood, provided women persevere in faith and love and holiness, with self-control (1 Tim 2:15).

This implies that a woman should be married and have children.

But I also see:

I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man. She must be quiet’ (1 Tim 2:12).

However, is this Church teaching or Roman morality?

The Bible also says bishops, like Jewish Rabbis, should be married:

Therefore, a bishop must be irreproachable, married only once, temperate, self-controlled, decent, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not aggressive, but gentle, not contentious, not a lover of money (1 Ti 3:2–3).

The above suggests marriage is the preferred option for a woman. (be fruitful and multiply).

However I have been told that celibacy/virginity is a higher option than marriage, as I see in the WWW:

The Catholic Church teaches that celibacy is superior to marriage. Pope John Paul II said that “the Church, throughout her history, has always defended the superiority of this charism [celibacy] to that of marriage” ( Familiaris Consortio 16).
 
Saint Paul’s writings on celibacy are his opinion.
Now concerning virgins, I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. I think that, in view of the impending crisis, it is well for you to remain as you are. (1 Corinthians 7:25)
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This also means that Saint Paul was also at least not aware of any of Jesus’ teachings on celibacy.
 
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I would say that is similar to asking whether a really good white Stilton is better than some creamy smooth Belgian milk chocolate. They are different and cannot be compared.

Marriage and the religious life are different vocations. God calls us to the one He thinks is appropriate for us.

I am very glad there are contemplative communities who can spend their day praying for us. Something I simply do not have the time to do. However, I do not believe they are superior to me.
 
gracepoole said:
The Council of Trent:
CANON X.-If any one saith, that the marriage state is to be placed above the state of virginity, or of celibacy, and that it is not better and more blessed to remain in virginity, or in celibacy, than to be united in matrimony; let him be anathema.
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I don’t believe the Council of Trent’s Anathema statements and wording are the place Catholics should be going to understand celibacy and matrimony. The Council of Trent’s Anathema statements are officially “off the books”.


From this article…
Yet the penalty was used so seldom that it was removed from the 1983 Code of Canon Law . This means that today the penalty of anathema does not exist in Church law. The new Code provided that, “When this Code goes into effect, the following are abrogated: 1º the Code of Canon Law promulgated in 1917 . . . 3º any universal or particular penal laws whatsoever issued by the Apostolic See, unless they are contained in this Code” (CIC [1983] 6 §1). The penalty of anathema was not renewed in the new Code, and thus it was abrogated when the Code went into effect on January 1, 1983.
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Can the Anathema statements introduce doctrine? Sure. It is better to go to the Catechism to understand that doctrine on marriage and celibacy though. I’d refer to 1620 which basically says they are gifts from God that reinforce each other and are inseparable. In the sense that the Charism of celibacy is a gift from God, I’d believe this means that somebody who has this gift should not feel pressure to marry and their superior choice is celibacy. However, Catholic teaching is not that everybody should strive for celibacy.
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I don’t see how there can be any debate on this issue after having seen Canon X of Session 24 of the Council of Trent.
 
jack63 said:
The Council of Trent’s Anathema statements are officially “off the books”.
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What do you mean by “anathema statements”? Do you mean the penalty of anathema attached to the Canons, or the Canons themselves? Because while the former is off the books, the latter certainly isn’t.
 
ioannes_pius said:
What do you mean by “anathema statements”? Do you mean the penalty of anathema attached to the Canons, or the Canons themselves? Because while the former is off the books, the latter certainly isn’t.
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Like I said, the wording and the anathemas are off the books. It certainly allows for discussion of the doctrines and their meaning. Yes, there is doctrine behind Canon 10 about marriage and celibacy. Again, like I said, the doctrine is not off the books. However,…

Does the doctrine in Canon 10 mean
  1. All Catholics should strive for celibacy?
  2. All priests should be celibate?
  3. Saint Paul’s words on Celibacy are doctrine?
  4. Celibacy is inherently more holy for all people?
  5. If somebody truly has the gift of celibacy, they should pursue that gift?
I’d say No to 1-4 above, and yes to 5.
 
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Both are Supernatural against nature.

It’s not natural for two people to spend their whole lives together and nor is religion to humans.

That is why both are so special.
 
Do you all not believe Jesus in the Sermon in the Mount when he speaks about the attributes of those who will have “great reward” (Luke 6:23, 35)?

Rewards is a theme found multiple places in the Bible. The Apostle Paul mentions it in 1 Corinthians 3:14 and the Apostle John mentions it in 2 John 1:8.

Did not Jesus say: “Lay up your treasures in heaven.”?
 
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It is dogma that the state of virginity (that is, those who are virgins or continents for the sake of the kingdom) is superior to the state of marriage. Catholics are required to believe dogmas of the Faith, and this is one. Those who reject it are heretics.

While the state of consecrated life or continent life for the sake of the Kingdom is superior to that of marriage, the individuals within those states have their own level of holiness, which is measured by the degree of charity residing within their souls. A trash collector can be morally holier than a tepid religious. The state of life is a “way of life”, not a measure of moral holiness. There is a difference between holiness as a measure of charity within a soul and holiness as a thing/person reserved for God alone.

–Mother Therese, OCV, JCL
Specializing in theology and law of consecrated life.
This communication does not establish a canon lawyer-client relationship.
 
SerraSemper said:
While the state of consecrated life or continent life for the sake of the Kingdom is superior to that of marriage, the individuals within those states have their own level of holiness, which is measured by the degree of charity residing within their souls. A trash collector can be morally holier than a tepid religious. The state of life is a “way of life”, not a measure of moral holiness.
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“To whom much is given, much is required.” (Luke 12:48)
 
This is not a statement of dogma. It is a statement of someone’s opinion. A canon lawyer is not embued with infallibility or with dogmatic certainty.
 
Why the personal attack? As a canon lawyer (the kind of expert called upon to assist bishops in interpreting who must be punished for the delict of heresy), a perita on the theology AND law of consecrated life given a diploma to that effect from the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and one whose specialization in this field, I might know a thing or two about this topic.

Is it a dogma? Yes. And I don’t make the claim lightly. It’s not my “personal opinion”, it is an objective fact. One of the first heresies denied the superiority of virginity over marriage and was roundly condemned. The Council of Trent made a dogmatic statement to refute the Protestant heresies who were teaching that virginity was not superior to marriage.

The Popes also upheld the constant teaching of the Church in this regard. Dogma and doctrine are unchangeable whereas many disciplines are changeable.

Pope Pius XII in his papal encyclical Sacra Virginitas:
  1. This doctrine of the excellence of virginity and of celibacy and of their superiority over the married state was, as We have already said, revealed by our Divine Redeemer and by the Apostle of the Gentiles; so too, it was solemnly defined as a dogma of divine faith by the holy council of Trent,[57] and explained in the same way by all the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church. Finally, We and Our Predecessors have often expounded it and earnestly advocated it whenever occasion offered. But recent attacks on this traditional doctrine of the Church, the danger they constitute, and the harm they do to the souls of the faithful lead Us, in fulfillment of the duties of Our charge, to take up the matter once again in this Encyclical Letter, and to reprove these errors which are so often propounded under a specious appearance of truth.
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Pope John Paul II in Vita Consecrata:

18…This is why Christian tradition has always spoken of the objective superiority of the consecrated life .Nor can it be denied that the practice of the evangelical counsels is also a particularly profound and fruitful way of sharing in Christ’s mission, in imitation of the example of Mary of Nazareth, the first disciple, who willingly put herself at the service of God’s plan by the total gift of self. Every mission begins with the attitude expressed by Mary at the Annunciation: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word” ( Lk 1:38).

–Mother Therese, OCV, JCL
Specializing in theology and law of consecrated life.
This communication does not establish a canon lawyer-client relationship.
 
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It is definitive and consistent Catholic doctrine that consecrated life is objectively a higher calling than marriage. This cannot be disputed. It is a dogma of the Church…there is no wiggle room. Trent was very and infallibly clear…and the teaching has been consistently upheld since. The appropriate quotes have already been provided in this thread.

That said, that doesn’t mean that consecrated persons are automatically holier than married persons. Holiness is a personal quality…both consecrated and married persons can be great saints.

It also doesn’t mean that consecrated life is objectively “better” for any given individual. For those called to it, it is better. For those called to marriage, marriage is better.
 
I didn’t attack you. I simply said that this was not a matter of dogma. And I don’t know on what basis this person says that anyone who rejects this claim is a heretic. I’m not trying to get into an argument, but it should be noted that I am not the one calling anyone a heretic. Enough.
 
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It is a matter of dogma, and this is the definition of a heresy found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church for your reference:

2089 Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. " Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him."11
 
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