When speaking of celibacy, I believe that we have to think in spiritual terms to really understand it, because it helps us understand how celibacy came into existence in the Catholic Church, East and West and why it became so valued in the West.
Let us remember that celibacy predates Christianity. It existed in Judaism and in pagan religions as well. The fact that it was a highly valued jewel among people of all faiths, even pagan faiths, raises a very basic question, could it be possible that celibacy came from the voice of God speaking to believers and non-believers? If so, what is it that God was trying to say.
Along come John the Baptist, the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, all celibate. Jesus spoke of the eunuchs. He specifically mentions those who become eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom. He was referring to those who embraced a celibate life for the sake of the kingdom. Among them was the Beloved Disciple, John. We know that John never married. Then comes Paul. He never married. He also reminds widows of the special grace that they have received to remain widows. He reminds the early Christians of the special place that perpetual virginity has in the Christian community. He concludes his discourses on celibacy by saying that those who cannot live a celibate life should marry to avoid the sins of the flesh.
In the scriptures and the early Church we already see the beginning of a celibate life. These people who embraced this life were not religious. Cenobites and anchorites arrive on the scene after the Apostles. These were the first groups that could properly be called religious communities. The gradually gathered in the desert to live in hermitages and later in monasteries around Albert, Benedict and Basil, in particular. But there were deacons and presbyters who did not join the hermits and the monks. They remained in the city. These were the first secular priests. They did not consecrate their lives to follow a rule, to live in constant prayer, to follow an austere plan of life or to obey an abbot or prior. They remained in the city around the local bishop. They promised their obedience to the local bishop.
By the end of the first millennium, there were many clerics (deacons and priests) who were not hermits or monks (religious), but lived a celibate life. Most of them lived in the Roman Church. We can see the beginning of a secular celibate priesthood in the Roman Church, which had not evolved in the Eastern Church, where the large majority of celibate men were part of monastic communities (religious).
What we’re seeing here is the development of two different traditions in two different hemispheres. In the East the celibate life was embraced as a form of consecration by those who consecrated their lives to live in a monastic community with other brothers. In the West it took two forms. Among religious who consecrated their lives to live as hermits, monks, friars and apostolic religious celibacy was embraced as part of a way of life. It liberated men and women to be one with each other, with the Church and with Christ, without any other attachment in this world. They understood that celibacy was not just a discipline, but it was an anticipation of life in heaven, where men and women are not given to each other in marriage. The religious community becomes a prototype of heaven on earth.
But it took another form too. Those men who were deacons, priests and bishops, but did not feel called to consecrate their lives in a community found that celibacy, as a discipline, liberated them from the duties of marriage to be itinerant pastors. They were not religious. They retained their secular lives, meaning that they had money, they had titles, and they governed themselves. They also had their families and many of them lived with their families. Some served the people as priests and also fulfilled civic duties as Lords in feudal societies. Gradually, they attached themselves to bishops by promising obedience to the local bishop. As we can see, this was the development of what we call today diocesan priests.
Along with these celibate men who were ordained, but not consecrated religious, there were other men who were ordained, but were married. But gradually the number of married deacons and priests dwindled in the West. The tradition was well grounded in the Western Church, unlike the Eastern Church where celibacy was not found among those who were secular deacons and priests.
We have to stop here and notice that the bishops of the East and West had abandoned marriage very early in the Church. It came to pass that no married men were ever ordained bishops in either the East and West. This happened by the second century. The celibate deacons and priests took longer to become entrenched in the Western Church. We have to notice then that celibacy was a discipline for the secular clergy, that was freely embraced by them. By the time the Church establishes as a law, it was already in practice.
There was also celibacy as a form of consecration to the common life embraced by religious. Today, when we are discussing celibacy, we have to recall the history. It was not something that the Church pulled out of a pope’s mitre. In fact, by the time the papacy recognized it, it was just a matter of making official something that was already part of our Church.
Therefore, we can’t be too quick to throw our celibacy in the Western Church, because it’s part of our heritage, where it’s not part of the Eastern Catholic heritage among the secular clergy. That’s why their married men can be ordained and our married men are not ordained to the priesthood.
I hope this helps.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
