Is religious life a holier vocation than marriage?

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Yes. It’s dogma. The problem is that these other posters simply don’t have the tools to tell us how this dogma fits in with the universal call to holiness that all of the baptized have. That is what they are focusing on, which of course does little to explain the dogma in how the state of virginity for the sake of the kingdom is superior to that of marriage, even sacramental marriage.
 
SerraSemper said:
That is what they are focusing on, which of course does little to explain the dogma in how the state of virginity for the sake of the kingdom is superior to that of marriage, even sacramental marriage.
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Contemplation… and a closer approximation of Our Lord’s Life… and availability for ministry… they are all connected. Contemplation is the hinge, though. Licit pleasures, especially sexual activity, hinder contemplation, never mind the frenetic activities of marriage and parenthood.
 
A priest’s life is honorable, but other vocations should also be respected. Each person has his right to choose vocation. Different vocation has different requirment.
 
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Larquetta said:
Also, do they experience a greater degree of glory in Heaven?
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Jesus said that we should serve our fellow bros, not to be served. When they’re serving the people they would have been experience a greater degree. Maybe they do, God only knows.
 
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No, religious life is not a holier vocation than marriage.
Both are equally holy.
Both are held sacred, especially by virtue of both being clean and pure.
Holy orders and matrimony are both sacraments.
Sacraments are the means God uses to bless us.
God blesses equally a religious life and marriage.
 
I guess yeah, if you want to ignore the de fide teaching of the Church on the matter…
 
I don’t think “holier” is the right term.

The Religious Life is a HIGHER vocation, because it’s closer to what life in Heaven is like.

But I would not call it “holier.” I mean, just look at Saints Zelie and Louis Martin.

St. Zelie Martin wanted to be a nun, and St. Louis Martin wanted to be a priest. Both of them were turned down. They married, and originally thought they would live a Marriage of Continence - both remaining virgins.

However, their priest talked them out of that, and then went on to bring 9 souls into this world (4 of which died as children), with the 5 reaching adulthood all becoming nuns.

Without Saints Zelie and Louis Martin realizing they were called to a fruitful marriage, we would not have St. Therese of Lisieux and her holy sisters:
  • Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart (Marie Martin)
  • Mother Agnes of Jesus (Pauline Martin)
  • Servant of God Sr. Francoise-Therese (Leonie Martin)
  • Sr. Genevieve of the Holy Face (Celine Martin)
Martin Family Saints, pray for us!

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InThePew said:
Why is it that nobody ever asks a married man (or woman) whether they think they might actually be called to priesthood (or religious life) instead?
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Probably because there’s a priest and religious vocations shortage, and some folks think it’s because those vocations don’t get encouraged enough, while the culture as well as one’s hormones (at least in people’s assumptions) generally encourages marriage.

While watching the recent Fr Peyton documentary, I noticed that Fr Peyton, despite feeling a call since childhood to be a priest, was apparently rejected by the seminary in his native Ireland because they had too many applicants. He had to emigrate to USA before finding a seminary that would accept him, even though he was not only clearly called but was a top student in his class when he finally entered. Nowadays if a Fr Peyton presented himself as a priesthood candidate in Ireland, they’d likely accept him without delay.
 
Ludovico said:
No, religious life is not a holier vocation than marriage.
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Not true. Several quotations have been offered where it is dogma that the state of virginity is superior to that of marriage. Dogma. Dogma is something a person must accept unless one wishes to be a heretic. Now for another quote from Sacra Virginitas:
  1. We have recently with sorrow censured the opinion of those who contend that marriage is the only means of assuring the natural development and perfection of the human personality.[60] For there are those who maintain that the grace of the sacrament, conferred ex opere operato, renders the use of marriage so holy as to be a fitter instrument than virginity for uniting souls with God; for marriage is a sacrament, but not virginity. We denounce this doctrine as a dangerous error. Certainly, the sacrament grants the married couple the grace to accomplish holily the duties of their married state, and it strengthens the bonds of mutual affection that unite them; but the purpose of its institution was not to make the employment of marriage the means, most suitable in itself, for uniting the souls of the husband and wife with God by the bonds of charity.[61]
 
The holiest vocation is that which God calls you to. It’s holiest for YOU, because it’s what God wants you to do.
 
Religious life and marriage are holy because they both have a divine quality.
They both have received the same divine quality proceeding from God.
There is no dogma of the Catholic Church that says that one is holier than the other.
If both were created by God, they are both equally holy.
https://www.catholicbridge.com/catholic/dogma.php
In his Sacra Virginitas encyclical, Pope Pius XII censured the opinion of those who contend that marriage is the ONLY means of…
And, “…use of marriage so holy as to be a FITTER instrument than virginity…”
Pope Pius XII was actually condemning the idea that one vocation is superior to the other.
 
Ludovico said:
In his Sacra Virginitas encyclical, Pope Pius XII censured the opinion of those who contend that marriage is the ONLY means of…
And, “…use of marriage so holy as to be a FITTER instrument than virginity…”
Pope Pius XII was actually condemning the idea that one vocation is superior to the other.
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Incorrect. It is a dogma, and quotes to that effect have already been posted further up. Here is the quote from Sacra Virginitas that repeats the dogma:
  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.
 
Look at the list of dogmas and show me where it says what you assert.
I read the entire list and didn’t find it.
Could you please do me the favor of doing your homework and indicate the dogma where it says what you claim? Please. Do I have to do your homework? (By the way, I will.)
I’m more than willing to change my mind based on the facts. So far, you haven’t presented any facts.
Show me the dogma. (I will review them one more time. Maybe I missed something.)
 
Here are the details of the Council of Trent.
There is only one entry regarding the sacrament of matrimony:
“In the meantime the congregations debated the draft of the decree on the Sacrament of Matrimony, and at the twenty-fourth session (November 11, 1563) there were promulgated a dogmatic decree (with twelve canons) on marriage as a sacrament and a reformatory decree (in ten chapters), which treated the various conditions requisite for contracting of a valid marriage.”
I mean, if you find something I don’t find, please, show it to me.

www.catholic.com

Council of Trent

Trent, COUNCIL OF.—The nineteenth ecumenical council opened at Trent on December 13, 1545, and closed there on December 4, 1563. Its main object was the definit...
www.catholic.com www.catholic.com

You say “…incorrect” but show no proof of anything. As far as I can tell all you say is hearsay.
Present facts. Show me the dogma where it says that holy orders are holier than matrimony.
You show me that; I’ll accepted 100%.
 
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Ludovico said:
Here are the details of the Council of Trent.
There is only one entry regarding the sacrament of matrimony:
“In the meantime the congregations debated the draft of the decree on the Sacrament of Matrimony, and at the twenty-fourth session (November 11, 1563) there were promulgated a dogmatic decree (with twelve canons) on marriage as a sacrament and a reformatory decree (in ten chapters), which treated the various conditions requisite for contracting of a valid marriage.”
I mean, if you find something I don’t find, please, show it to me.

Catholic Answers

Council of Trent​

Trent, COUNCIL OF.—The nineteenth ecumenical council…

You say “…incorrect” but show no proof of anything. As far as I can tell all you say is hearsay.
Present facts. Show me the dogma where it says that holy orders are holier than matrimony.
You show me that; I’ll accepted 100%.
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First of all, I am, as many canon lawyers are, familiar with what the Council of Trent says about marriage… So I don’t know what you are trying to prove about this. I gave you a quote from Sacra Virginitas written by Pius XII who quoted the Council of Trent. You could have looked up the paragraph I directly quoted and then checked out the footnote cited (#57) which is Council of Trent: Sess. XXIV, can 10.

Second I never claimed anything about the sacrament of holy orders per se. What I did claim is that the state of christian virginity is superior to that of sacramental marriage. As I have explained in another post somewhere on this thread, holy orders does not require continence for the sake of the Kingdom as an intrinsic element of the vocation but as a discipline. I was posting more directly about the state of perfection, the consecrated state, of which religious life is one form. Thus whatever you happen to state about holy orders is irrelevant insofar as I’m concerned.

Again, go to post #7 and look at the quotes about the dogma of the superiority of the consecrated state over the married state. It is the constant doctrine of the Church. There is nothing new in this claim. Nor is there anything new about heretics who want to claim otherwise starting with Jovinian whose work St. Jerome roundly condemned, a prototype of the Protestant reformers who claimed that marriage was superior to religious life (which the Council of Trent anathematized).
 
I still think what is missing from this conversation is that chastity or celibacy is a gift from God. This is dogma too. It is part of the context of the Council of Trent on Marriage. Canon 9 says chastity is a gift and Canon 10 talks about marriage not being a higher state than chastity. These go together.
CANON IX.-If any one saith, that clerics constituted in sacred orders, or Regulars, who have solemnly professed chastity, are able to contract marriage, and that being contracted it is valid, notwithstanding the ecclesiastical law, or vow; and that the contrary is no thing else than to condemn marriage; and, that all who do not feel that they have the gift of chastity, even though they have made a vow thereof, may contract marriage; let him be anathema: seeing that God refuses not that gift to those who ask for it rightly, neither does He suffer us to be tempted above that which we are able.
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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’m no Canon lawyer, but it seems to me that Canon 10 would have a different meaning if Canon 9 wasn’t there. Without Canon 9, Canon 10 would seem to imply all people should strive for celibacy or that it is some type of failure not to be celibate. That’s not at all the case. I think some of the misunderstanding and anger in this thread may come from this.

I mean we should all strive to be holy, but if celibacy is a gift we should not all strive to be celibate. Not everybody will have that gift. If marriage and celibacy reinforce each other as described in the CCC, people should strive for both states depending on their gifts. It’s not competition. Neither state is a consolation prize.
 
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“look at the quotes about the dogma of the superiority of the consecrated state over the married state.”

There is not such a dogma.

There are 258 dogmas in the Catholic Church.
Not a single one implies that the consecrated state is superior over the married state.

Please, find such dogma and list it in your reply.
 
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