It’s not really that simple. Let’s take it in smaller pieces. Celibacy is actually older than Christianity.
Let’s look at the reasons for the differences between East and West. In the Western Church the discipline of celibacy became very common. We never had the large numbers of married men being ordained that the Eastern Churches had. There is no record of such a large married clergy. When speaking of the implementation of the discipline in the Western Church, many people have taken some liberty with Church history. By the time that the discipline becomes a canon, it is firmly in practice with a minority of married clergy.
In the Eastern Churches, very few priests were celibate. Most priests who were celibate joined monasteries. Theologically speaking, they are no longer secular men. They are consecrated religious. In the Eastern tradition to canonize celibacy would have been contrary to what had been the tradition of those Churches, which was not the case in the West. That’s how the two traditions developed.
In Mystical Theology there is a principle that God moves the soul closer to him using the ordinary means in the environment and in some cases he goes beyond those ordinary means through private revelations, such as those that are experienced by some mystics. Now, the point is that because celibacy has been part of the Western Church since the time of the Apostles, even though it was not a canonized discipline, God has used it to sanctify the cleric and draw him to himself. Celibacy is ordinary to the Western Church. It becomes part of the ordinary means of grace for the ordained.
Now we ask, why are the Anglicans and other Protestant clerics allowed to remain married and be ordained as Roman Rite Catholic priests. We go back to grace building on nature. Marriage and ministry have been the ordinary means that God has used to draw these men to him. The very fact that they are entering the Catholic Church tells us that God is drawing them to him. Therefore, the Church can justify ordaining these men in the Roman Rite, in their married state, because God has used their situation to call them.
In the case of those who are born into the Roman Rite and are called to the priesthood, God uses what is ordinary to us. The men who are called and respond to the call do not come from a culture with a married secular clergy. A married clergy is not ordinary to us. To change the discipline that has been part of the Western Church since the first generation of the Church is unreasonable. We would be adding something to the Western tradition that faded out and that we cannot justify adding.
St. Paul presented more arguments for celibacy than he did for marriage. St. Peter writes about the duties of spouses but does not include a ministerial role in that definition. We don’t examine this from a secular historical perspective, but from the perspective of mystical theology. What we see in the writings of Paul and Peter on the subjects of celibacy and marriage is that each of them is a self-sufficient means of grace. Therefore, each of them is also a self-sufficient path toward union between the soul and God, which is the ultimate desire of the soul. It then becomes clearer why the followers of Peter and Paul, who were in the West, gradually separate the two sacraments, not only in fact, which all of the Apostolic Churches do, but also in praxis.
From the earliest days the number of celibate men who become presbyters in the Roman Church starts to grow, because they seek to encounter Christ in the divine union between soul and eternity. This can be accomplished without marriage. Observe that they adopt celibacy for the good of their soul, not for practical reasons. Many people want to say that it is more practical for a priest to be celibate. That is true. But that was not the mindset of the early presbyters who adopted a celibate life. It was the fact that being a priest was a complete and self-sufficient means to salvation. If we lose sight of the mysticism behind the sacraments, then we lose sight of the fact that you don’t need both marriage and holy orders for salvation.
Remember that a man becomes a priest, first and foremost, because he believes that this is the means for the salvation of his soul. It is true that a priest serves the Church, cooperates in the salvation of souls by offering the sacrifice, blessing and absolving. But the primary reason must always be the salvation of one’s soul. Therefore, since the celibate state is ordinary in the West, we know that God will provide the necessary grace for salvation. It’s up to the individual to use that grace or lose it through sin. But that’s not God’s fault.
The ordination of the converts is an exception, not a willy nilly decision. It is really an act of mercy on the part of the Church. The Church understands that these men have been called to holiness within very unique circumstances. The Church is going to facilitate the on-going relationship with Christ, by allowing them to remain in their married and clerical state. The Church does not have to make this pastoral exception for those born into the Roman Rite, because this is an extraordinary pastoral provision. The Church is very careful to use extraordinary provisions only when they are necessary for the salvation of souls. The only argument that we could present to the Holy See for ordaining married men is that it is necessary for the salvation of their soul. The argument that this would increase the number of priests will not fly, because we do not ordain men to maintain the numbers. In other words there is no rule that says that we must have X number of priests. The rule is that we must have priests.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
