The meaningful purpose of celibacy

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Here is an interesting article by Frank Bruni against celibacy:
nytimes.com/2013/02/26/op…bacy.html?_r=0

I am not a fan of Frank Bruni, but I will give him credit this time around, for this article in which he manages to express his opinion without descending into his usual anti-Catholic diatribe.

I must comment on his closing paragraph:
“If the stories about Cardinal O’Brien are true, you can look at him as the latest in a long line of Catholic hypocrites, his deeds in conflict with his words. That’s fair enough. But you can also look at him as someone whose needs couldn’t conform to a needless commitment to aloneness. And you can reserve your harshest judgment for the institution that puts him and so many others in that bind.”

I want to discuss the part that I bolded. It is a claim that he is making and I think it needs to be dissected.

Is a priest’s committment to celibacy “needless”? And does celibacy = aloneness? And to take it a step further, even if celibacy = aloneness, does aloneness = loneliness?

And can anyone effectively explain that a life of celibacy serves a meaningful purpose in a priest’s vocation?
 
The meaningful purpose is sole dedication and sole consecration to God. This was the example that Jesus set. This is the example that St. Paul set. Furthermore, St. Paul clearly tells us in the Scripture that “An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife,”
This article further expands on the topic.
 
This is an address given by the Bishop of Shrewsbury to the seminarians at Oscott last year:

Homily for the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord
by Right Rev. Mark Davies, Bishop of Shrewsbury
Oscott College, 20th May 2012

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses …” (Acts 1:8)

Today I want to reflect with you, men preparing for the priesthood, on how we are called to be such witnesses of Christ by the consecration of our lives in apostolic celibacy. Pope Benedict reminds us that this feast of the Ascension of the Lord is not a feast of Christ’s “absence” or “disappearance.” Rather, the Holy Father reflects, this mystery urges us: “to consolidate our faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in history: without him we can do nothing effective in our life or our apostolate.” The Church was not born and does not live, Pope Benedict explains, “to compensate for the absence of her Lord who has “disappeared” but on the contrary finds the reason for her existence and mission in the invisible presence of Jesus, a presence working through the power of his Spirit” (24th May 2009).

In a similar way celibacy, by which we seek to give our whole lives in the Priesthood, might also be seen as an “absence”, a “void” which leaves us without the possibility of marriage. Yet it is in reality a radical self-gift by which we give ourselves completely to Christ and make ourselves totally available to him for the service of His Church. It is a life to be lived, as the Gospel and the Catechism emphasises “for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven” (CCC 1579). It must be a life filled with Christ or it would, indeed, be an empty life. This is a life which constantly points, as does the celebration of this day, towards Heaven, to the resurrection and to the life of the world to come. In a culture today which often seeks to live as if God and eternity do not exist, this witness of celibacy is more needful than ever. As Pope Benedict said at the end of the “Year for Priests,” “celibacy is an anticipation, a foretaste of the future, made possible by the grace of the Lord who draws us to himself and anticipates the world of the resurrection.” If this world alone were sufficient we would close the doors to the greatness of our existence. But the meaning of celibacy as an anticipation of the future, the Holy Father declared, “is to open these doors, to make the world greater, to show the reality of the future which should be lived by us as already present” (Vigil in St. Peter’s Square 10th June 2010). In this way, we can see our call to celibacy in the light of the Ascension of the Lord and its profound meaning.

In those remarkable conversations with priests which Pope Benedict has engaged in, he speaks of “the scandal” of celibacy, the scandal of a life, the scandal of a witness you seek to embrace. “For the agnostic world,” he says, “the world in which God does not enter” this is a very great scandal. The celibacy of the Catholic Priesthood lived in its integrity “is a great sign of faith, of the presence of God in the world” (10th June 2010). It has been a hallmark of the Catholic Priesthood which never ceases to draw the fascination of the world. Yet this way of life would be unthinkable and unimaginable without Christ. “It exists because Christ, who makes it possible, exists” (Cardinal Hummes, reflections on 40th Anniversary of “Sacerdotalis Caelibatus”). And Christ exists not, we recall today, as an historical memory for those who must wonder “what would Jesus have done?” No! He is the Lord who is truly present, loving and redeeming us now. To this the celibacy of the Catholic Priest gives a constant witness.

[continued in next post]
 
Sometimes people will say to you celibacy is an unnecessary imposition, and it is often easier to explain celibacy on grounds of practicality. Yet this celibate life, this gift of self, rests on grounds of faith. Where faith is lacking, where the perspective of the Ascension and of Eternity is lost, celibacy would indeed seem to be an incomprehensible imposition by ecclesiastical authority. But as Pope Paul wrote in the Encyclical Letter he promised the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council he would write powerfully affirming it as a priceless gift, priestly celibacy is a brilliant jewel, guarded by the Church for centuries. Pope Paul wrote: “by a daily dying to himself and by giving up the legitimate love of a family of his own for the love of Christ and of his Kingdom, the priest will find the glory of an exceedingly rich and fruitful life in Christ …” An element of real sacrifice is, of course, part of every Christian vocation, not least the vocation of marriage and the family. From my own experience, and the experience of countless generations of priests, the sacrifice involved in celibacy seems small compared with the joy of a gift which allows us to give the whole of our lives to Christ as a priest.

You often hear voices calling for an end to priestly celibacy as it has been lived in the Catholic Church. From my own reading of history, those voices have never been lacking. Yet this is precisely because the witness to which we are called is a radical one. I would ask you always to question their view not so much of celibacy but of the Priesthood itself. When we reflect on the Priesthood as it has been taught and lived by the Church and witnessed to in the lives of countless saints the giving of a life, of my life and yours, seems very little. St. John Vianney, our patron, was overwhelmed by the greatness of this gift and the task entrusted to a human creature, “How great is a priest,” he would say, “If he realised what he is, he would die not of fear but out of love …only in heaven will the priest fully realise what he is.” When we recognise the reality of the Priesthood we would wish to give all of ourselves, all of our lives in return knowing this would never be enough.

We know celibacy is not demanded of the Priesthood by its nature yet we also see through the centuries that this intimate connection of celibacy and the priesthood is not a contrived one. Celibacy was not an arbitrary imposition of an ecclesiastical law arising from historical conditions which have now passed. The councils which enacted laws of celibacy in the earliest centuries, of perfect continence for the clergy, had no doubt that they were acting on an apostolic tradition and they explicitly declared this. The Popes of our own time have reaffirmed the celibate Priesthood in powerful and moving terms. We think of Blessed John XXIII, Pope Paul VI, Blessed John Paul II, and our present Holy Father Pope Benedict. This is, I believe, because the witness of the celibate Priesthood is not something less needed today: it is more needed than ever before! Our Lord tells us on this day of the Ascension: “when the Holy Spirit comes on you, then you will be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). In all that apostolic celibacy gives witness to yesterday and today may we be such witnesses, joyful witnesses, to the end of our lives. Amen.

dioceseofshrewsbury.org/news/press-releases/bishop-reaffirms-the-enduring-value-of-priestly-celibacy-2

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amsjj 🙂

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Jesus, God and man,
imprisoned by love in Thy most holy Sacrament,
have mercy upon us.
  • Blessed John Henry Newman, December 22, 1851
Tú y yo sabemos por la fe que oculto en las especies sacramentales está Cristo,
ese Cristo con su Cuerpo, con su Sangre, con su Alma, y con su Divinidad,
prisonero de amor.
  • San Josemaría Escrivá, 1 junio 1974
… Our Lord Himself frequently said; and it is recorded as an Apostolic tradition from Him by St. Justin the Martyr. He says ‘Jesus often said, “They who are near Me are near a fire”’.
  • Abp. W. B. Ullathorne, August 1st 1886
 
Celibacy is a choice that priests in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church make. Their choice is to forgo marriage and sexual intimacy in order to “marry the church” and dedicate themselves wholly to serving the People of God.

If a man feels the calling to the priesthood and married life, there are other Catholic Rites that might be a fit. It is really a choice that needs to be discerned to determine if a true calling exists.

From my reading, it appears that celibacy was called for very early on in the Church’s history. The church fathers, including St. Augustine, wrote extensively on the benefits they saw in celibacy, not only for clergy, but for lay people alike. Unfortunately, at that time in history the prevailing thought was that sexual desire was objectively wrong and that sexual intercourse (even within marriage) was only to be tolerated for procreation and even that was considered a venial sin. Now we know through a deeper understanding of the truth and outlined in Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae, that the unitive aspects of the marital embrace are on an equal plain to procreation. Further, we know that sexual desire is not a sin, but instead is wholly natural and in accord with natural law. Lust on the other hand is a sin and is present when sexual desire is perverted.

This topic has been hotly debated for the entire life of the church. It seems to me that us Latin Catholics could learn from our Eastern brethren. The number of priests has declined and we have been rocked to the core by perverted priests. Why not implement a system similar to the Eastern Catholic or Anglican Ordinary brothers?
 
jpjd said:
Is a priest’s committment to celibacy “needless”? And does celibacy = aloneness? And to take it a step further, even if celibacy = aloneness, does aloneness = loneliness?
Click to expand...
My husband is a non-Catholic/non-beliver who attends Mass with me every Sunday. (Well, every Sunday that he is home.) Over the course of the past few years DH has become very good friends with one of the priests at our parish. They started out as tennis buddies and now hang out as friends when they have the time. (They are both terribly busy with their jobs.)

Because they are just friends and not “priest - parishioner,” Father has opened up a bit to DH in a way that most Catholics probably will never experience. Anyway, Father has expressed that, while he indeed finds his job as a priest to be satisfying work, he is also terribly lonely, and he sometimes expresses regret that he will never have a family. He is also of the opinion that priests should be allowed to marry.
 
I do understand the difficulties.

But the fact remains that celibacy is a powerful witness for Christ. To dedicate your life, mind and body, to the Church speaks in a way that nothing else can. It is giving up something “lower” for something “higher.” The kingdom of heaven is the pearl of great price.

I think it’s sad that not only our culture tells us that life without sex is unliveable, but Catholics as well. It is challenging, to be sure, but not impossible. It should be a carefully thought out decision by any man who feels a call. They absolutely must surround themselves with supportive family and friends, and have a close circle of family and friends who they can spend time with and open up deeply to so that they are not alone when they don’t want to be, and rarely lonely. (I won’t say “never” lonely, since I think everyone feels a sense of loneliness at one or another point in time.)

The Church has wised up to the fact that in past decades, men have used the Church as a cover for their homosexuality or their pedophile leanings. Seminaries are taking steps to prevent that now. When people talk about their opinions on the discipline of celibacy, I think it’s a huge mistake to favor lifting celibacy due the actions of those men, as Frank Bruni is doing. Such men did not look to the priesthood for valid reasons. There are countless priests who do commit to the priesthood on the merits of the priesthood, and they are successfully meeting the challenge of celibacy.

Happy priests don’t make the news.
 
It’s been several years but I remember a priest in his homily speaking on this topic. He made a distinction from bachelorhood and celibacy. He was of the opinion that many priests are bachelors; hence, not satisfied with being celibates: lonely, longing, not satisfied. He then went on to describe how he was happy with his lot of being a celibate. I can’t remember the points he made other than the bachelor/celibate dichotomy.
 
Wow, that echos something I heard our priest say during a talk he was giving to a group about what a priest is. I remember he explicitly said, “I am not a bachelor.” It stuck in my mind because it made such a good point, succintly.

And, thank you amsjj for that article. It is really good.
 
jpjd said:
Is a priest’s committment to celibacy “needless”? And does celibacy = aloneness? And to take it a step further, even if celibacy = aloneness, does aloneness = loneliness?
Click to expand...
My brief answer is:
  • If you consider priesthood as a profession (like engineers, lawyers, doctors, …), then yes celibacy = needless, and celibacy = aloneness.
If you regard priesthood as a vocation to totally consecrate oneself to God, then NO
 
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