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White_Peony
Guest
After Jesus went back to heaven, when did priests decide they shouldn’t get married? Because the gospels speak of Jesus healing Peter’s mother in law.
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AmbroseSJ
Guest
Priests are still married today, if you happen to be Byzantine. It’s a Latin discipline that more or less became mandatory in the 11th century.
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DeniseNY
Guest
It’s only been fairly recently (since 1999 if I recall correctly) that Byzantine priests in the U.S. have been able to be married. I think they had always been allowed to in Europe.
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kepha1
Guest
Peter was probably widowed. After Peter’s mother-in-law was healed, she served the guests. This goes against the customs of the times because it would be unthinkable for the mother-in-law to serve in the son-in-laws household. So where was Peter’s wife?
Celibacy was not mandatory in the early Church, but it was not unheard of either.
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steve53
Guest
Philip was married, and who had four daughters who were prophetesses.
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Edward_Pothier
Guest
**Since the thread title is specifically “Married Apostles?”, it is necessary to point out a confusion in the Philip referred to above. **
While there was a Philip who was one of the Twelve Apostles, this above Philip (from Acts 21) was the Philip who was first mentioned in Acts chapter 6 as one of the Seven deacons [although the noun corresponding to "deacon"is not used there, but a related verb is].
"<Acts 21:8>On the next day we resumed the trip and came to Caesarea, where we went to the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the Seven,** and stayed with him. <**9>He had four virgin daughters gifted with prophecy."
So this Philip (with the four daughters and presumably a wife, at least at one time!) was the deacon Philip and not the apostle.
Edward Pothier
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steve53
Guest
So Paul should not be called an Apostle?
I think there is a thread on this somewhere.
I think there is a thread on this somewhere.
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Abu
Guest
The continence of Christ’s priests, usually described as celibacy, is an Apostolic norm and mandatory from the time of the Apostles.
“From the beginnings of the Church, and throughout the Greco-Latin world, a single rule prevailed: Priests were celibate; or else, if they had married before ordination, they and their wives promised to live together thereafter without the use of the marriage. This rule was an Apostolic norm; it was proclaimed and practiced by the Apostles; and that norm in turn was founded upon the example of our Lord Himself.”
[George Sims Johnston, *Our Sunday Visitor, 1998]
“In more recent times, the predecessor of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued an instruction in 1858 that stated: "Whoever ponders diligently the true tradition of celibacy and clerical continence will indeed find that, from the first centuries of the Catholic Church, if not by a general and explicit law, at least by behavior and custom, it was firmly established that not only bishops and priests, but [all] clergy in Holy Orders were to preserve inviolate virginity or perpetual continence. " 9
“That priestly celibacy is an apostolic tradition “is shown clearly and convincingly” by the work of Stickler, Cochini, Heid, and others. This is the verdict of then–Cardinal Ratzinger. 10”
Cardinal Ratzinger in The Theological Locus of Ecclesial Movements (note 10), explains the unity existing with and from the apostles, including priestly celibacy.
“That priestly celibacy is not a medieval invention, but goes back to the earliest period of the Church, is shown clearly and convincingly by Card. A.M. Stickler, *The Case for Clerical Celibacy: Its Historical Development and Theological Foundations *(San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1995). Cf.
also I: Cochini, *Origines apostoliques du celibat sacerdotal *(Paris-Namur, 1981); S Heid, *Zolibat in der friihen Kirche *(Paderborn, 1997).” (p 483 n 2)
Notes
9 Quoted by Roman Cholij, Celibacy, Married Clergy, and the Oriental Code. Eastern Churches Journal , Vol. 3, No. 3 (Autumn, 1996), p. 112.
10 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The Theological Locus of Ecclesial Movements. Communio (Fall 1998), footnote 2, p. 483.
See holyspiritinteractive.net/columns/guests/rayryland/thegift.asp
“Recently it is more fashionable to claim that obligatory celibacy for the clergy began only in the 4th century, with Pope St. Siricius (384-399). Pope Siricius was affirming a norm already fixed long before his time in the tradition; he was not at all innovating a new norm.” The Origin Of Priestly Celibacy, by Hugh Ballantyne, June 2003].
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AmbroseSJ
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Just a note: The OP was about marriage, not continence or celibacy. Married Apostles and successors existed from Apostolic times.
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CalCatholic
Guest
I don’t know, in 1 Cor. 9:5-6 Paul says;** “Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a wife, as the other apostles and the brethren of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?”**
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Abu
Guest
Among the Apostles, only Saint Peter is known to have been married because his mother-in-law is mentioned in the Gospels, but no mention is made of his wife or children. Tradition tells us that he was a widower who was caring for his wife’s aged mother. Some of the others might have been married, but there is no indication of this and it is a clear that they left everything, including their families, to follow Christ.
St. Peter asked Our Lord, “What about us? We left all we had to follow you.” The Divine Master answered: “I tell you solemnly, there is no one who has left house, wife, brothers, parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not be given repayment many times over in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life” (Lk 18:28-30, cf. Mt 19:27-30; Mk 10:20-21).
According to Christian Cochini, S.J., in *The Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy *(p. 79), the “majority of contemporary exegetes” interpret it to mean a Christian woman as an assistant, not a wife.
The phrase of 1 Cor 9:4—adelphaen gynaika or *mulierem sororem *— means a believer woman, a sisterly assistant or a housekeeper, not a wife. Let’s not allow ideology to give us wrong translations. Even if some present English versions uniformly read “wife,” they are uniformly wrong.
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PJM
Guest
Many, especially those who are non-Catholics seem to not understand that in the CC there are Teachings that are required to be believed, accepted and lived that we call Doctrines and Dogma’s. BUT there are also a GREAT Multitude of “Practices”.
It’s an important and highly signifiant difference because doctrines and dogmas cannot change or be changed; BUT those things classified as “church practices” can,. do and MAY BE changed.
Married priest is a Practice and many in the early Church were married. Paul even speaks of the criteria for Bishops and Deacons to “only have been married once.”
Certianly marriage is a good thing; so much so that Jesus raised it to the level of a Sacrament able to be a sourse of GRACE.
The change came over time. It was determined that those who are not married do not [also as Paul points out] have to split or share their time, talents and energies and THUS BETTER SERVE GOD and God’s people.
That is why the Church has now made it a requirement. BUT it is not “forced” as all who are called by God to the priesthood accept and OFFER this up for God; knowing fullwell that they will be granted the graces to live that life. [Also pointed out by Paul].
All sacrifices and gifts to God get there JUST rewards.
Still this is yet another reason the Church, and religious are in NEED of our prayers.God Bless,
Pat
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Abu
Guest
While the fact of priestly celibacy is a discipline, it is also more than a discipline because it is an Apostolic norm from the choices made by Jesus, and Sacred Scripture attests to its roots. The celibacy required for priests from the apostles was mandatory, and obligatory.
“Clerics were often chosen from among married older men. After ordination they were required to abstain from conjugal intercourse. In effect then, they were not married. Qui habent uxores, tamquam non habentes sint. “Let those who are married live as if they do not have wives”. Pope Leo the Great in 458 AD borrowed those words of Saint Paul in order to describe the celibacy of the clergy.” . The Origin Of Priestly Celibacy, by Hugh Ballantyne, June 2003]
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Gorgias
Guest
Here’s where you have to be careful, and recall that the Scriptures weren’t written in English. The word isn’t “wife”, regardless which translation tells you that this is the case. Literally, in the original Greek, it’s ἀδελφὴν (sister) γυναῖκα (wife/woman). So, what’s he mean, here? Both words are nouns, not adjectives, so it’s not clear whether Paul means a wife who’s like a sister, or a sister who takes care of him like a wife would, or whether it simply means that he’s allowed to have a woman along with him. Much ink has been spilled on this issue; but it’s difficult to say that the conclusive translation is simply “wife”…
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steve53
Guest
Interesting that in Acts, it talks about sister who live in Jerusalem and helped him escape.
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