Topic: Celibacy for Priests
Date originally posted: April 2, 2002
Source of this posting: Moderator response to emailed question
Moderator who originally posted this source: P. Leach
Question: I am a Roman Catholic and have always appreciated and respected the traditions of the church, but sometimes I still find myself wondering why certain things are the way they are. My question is this: I understand why the church allows only men to be ordained and do not have a problem with that issue, but I am left to wonder where the churches position originates as to the issue of celibacy within the priesthood, or moreover the, the position of have none married men? I am not an advocate for the church to change their position on this matter. I just wish to better understand it. Thank you for your time.
Answer:
Dear Dennis,
Thanks very much for your question(s). "Wondering" is, by the way, a good thing in that it can cause us to enter more deeply into the mystery of the faith. So, don't ever worry about wondering! Use the wonder as an invitation to learn, study, ask questions, and, of course, to pray!
Your question revolves around the issue of the required celibacy for Priests and Bishops.
Throughout both the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches, Bishops are required to be celibate and have been for a very long time. (We'll get to Priests in a minute...hang on!)
In the New Testament Jesus' words in Matthew 19:11-12 (New American Bible) are relevant to your question:
"(Jesus) said, 'Not everyone can accept this teaching, only those to whom it is given to do so. Some men are incapable of sexual activity from birth; some have been deliberately made so; and some there are who have freely renounced sex for the sake of God's reign. Let him accept the teaching who can."
So, with this kind of Biblical sanction, celibacy has been part of the Christian tradition from the very beginning.
Additionally, every evidence points to Jesus Himself not being married. The Scripture itself is, actually, silent on the matter, but the unanimous tradition of the Church, as well as all the 'internal' Scriptural evidence (as far as I know), points to this same conclusion: Jesus was not married.
(This point, which is probably almost self-evident to Catholics, is interesting from two points-of-view. First, the so-called "argument from silence" -- arguing a 'positive' fact as a result of the Bible NOT saying something -- is usually looked down upon for many Scripture scholars. Second, the norm for Jewish men -- and Jesus was, to be sure, a Jewish man -- in the time when Jesus was alive on this earth was marriage. So, in this way, as in so many others, Jesus was deeply and profoundly COUNTER-cultural!)
As a result, then, of Jesus' words in Matthew 19 and the fact that He Himself was not married, celibacy has a very long and venerable role in Christian history and practice.
HOWEVER, the Scripture also gives us very clear evidence that at least Saint Peter, the first Pope, WAS married. Check out Matthew 8:14-15 and Luke 4:38-39 in which Peter's "mother-in-law" is mentioned. To have a mother-in-law, one has to have a wife. Ergo, Peter was married. Whether Peter's wife was alive at the time Peter was in Jesus' company or had died previously, the Bible is silent.
The point of this aspect of the New Testament story is that celibacy was not the ONLY way those closest to Jesus are presented. Apparently, on the basis of the Biblical record, being married was also acceptable for those who became Apostles and, therefore, the first Bishops.
The Tradition of the Church in both the East and the West is that celibacy first became the positive norm for all monks. Monasticism is a complex story. Essentially, though, monks were solitary figures who went to the desert, to imitate Jesus' 40 days in the desert, to listen for God, to wrestle with the demons, and to perfect their souls in obedience to God. It was a most austere life filled with privations of every sort.
(The practice of monks living in something like a community-of-monks, called 'cenobitic monasticism,' did not arise until somewhat later in the history of the Church. At this earliest stage monks were "hermits" and thus 'eremetical monasticism.')
While we have good evidence that some few women were eremetical or hermit monks in this earliest period, the vast majority of monks were male. Renouncing sexual activity was part of the regime of these monks -- both male and female. So, the norm for monks was celibacy.
In the Eastern Orthodox Churches, Bishops were, from a relatively early stage and still to this day as far as I know, chosen from among monks. Therefore, the norm for the order of "Episcopus" or Bishop was celibacy from a very long way back in the history of Christianity.
In the western Latin Rite Catholic Church -- in which the Latin language was used liturgically -- celibacy took a much longer time to become the norm.
Clearly, western Latin Christianity had celibate monks dating from a long, long time ago. Saint Benedict, who is the patron and founder of western cenobitic or communal monasticism, was celibate and he lived in the late A.D. 400s. His sister, Saint Scholastica, was also a celibate female monk.
Even earlier, Saint Augustine from North Africa was rather famous for his 'winding road' to celibacy; he was born in A.D. 354. Augustine was not, technically, a 'monk' being ordained a Priest to serve the people in the small North African town of Hippo Regius where he shortly became their very famous and prolific Bishop until he died in A.D. 430.
Inspite of these holy and important women and men, celibacy was not the ordinary life-style of what we might call "parish" Priests in the West until about A.D. 1215. At the Fourth Lateran (Ecumenical) Council, the Western Latin Church came down decisively in favor of making celibacy the state of life in which all those ordained to Priesthood should live.
[If you want to read a long-ish exposition of the process by which celibacy came to be the way Priests are called to live, check out the following site: http://newadvent.org/cathen/03481a.htm]
[A fine exposition of the doctrine of clerical celibacy in Catholicism is "Introduction to Spirituality" by Louis Bouyer. While the book is a little bit old (late 1950s/early 60s), what Father Bouyer has to say is still on the money. Check out the following website for a taste of what the book says: http://ic.net/~erasmus/RAZ108.HTM]
Probably, you're thinking: This is a lot more than I really bargained for when I asked the question!
The reason I go into all this detail -- and believe me: I've left a WHOLE BUNCH out! -- is that I would like to suggest that your question, Dennis, as with most theological questions, does not admit of a "simplistic" answer. We have to keep studying and learning and praying -- always praying! -- to learn and to understand the riches of our Catholic heritage!
Now, though, I want to make this even more complex: The Roman Catholic Church is made up of different "Rites." The Latin Rite to which the vast majority of Roman Catholics belong has a celibate clergy today.
But, the majority of the "other" Rites within the Roman Catholic Church do NOT all have celibate clergy.
While the matter of these different Rites is very complex, allow me simple way of explaining them: The different Rites in Roman Catholicism, largely, derive from the many and varied linguistic, cultural, and historical circumstances of God's people. The Roman Catholic Church, in an effort to be deeply respectful of all these diverse ways of being human, has recognized that God has called different people into His Body, the Church, using different languages and ways of worshiping. While these so-called "Eastern Rites" recognize the authority of the Pope, they usually have their own Patriarch (who is appointed by the Pope) and many have a Liturgy that is celebrated in widely different ways and languages. Some of the more famous, at least to me, of these "Eastern Catholic Rites" include the Byzantine, Maronite Antiochian, Melkites, Ruthenians, and others.
[The following web site seems to be a pretty good introduction to this complex matter of the "Eastern Rites" within Roman Catholicism: http://www.cin.org/rite.html]
The reason I bring this up is not just to confuse you! But many of these Eastern Catholic Rites have a married priesthood! Their Bishops are not married, but in many of these Eastern Catholic Rites, especially in their home areas, the Priests can be married. (The Vatican has said that if somebody from the US feels called to priesthood in these Eastern Catholic Rites, he cannot be married.) So, if a man in, say, Lebanon who is a member of the Maronite Antiochian Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, thinks that God is calling him to be a Priest and that man is married, he could -- after proper training and a call from his Bishop -- be ordained to the priesthood.
Just to make all this a bit more confusing: Make sure that you keep the Eastern Catholic Rites separate in your understanding from the Orthodox Churches. The Orthodox Churches do NOT recognize the authority of the Pope. They, however, do have valid Sacraments, and while their Bishops are not married, the Orthodox Churches usually do have married Priests.
So, why do we in the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church have a celibate priesthood?
Well, the answer is, as you can tell, a complex one...part of it is that we are trying to emulate the life of Jesus Who was not married. Another part of our reasons for celibacy in the priestly life is that our Tradition shows that celibacy, while certainly not solving all problems, does provide a kind of "spiritual freedom" to Priests who can, perhaps, serve the People of God without as much encumberance. And finally, celibacy is a grace from the Lord which can allow the Flame of God's Spirit to burn with a kind of white-hot intensity in the life of the one who receives that gift of grace.
To be sure, Roman Catholicism believes that celibacy is matter of "discipline" not of "theology." That is to say, if the Pope and the Bishops were to feel called by God to change our practice of celibacy, they have the right to do so. But the more than 1000 year experience of Catholicism suggests that celibacy will continue to be the norm in our Church for a long while.
Thanks again for your question!
Blessings,
Father Phillip