If someone gelds a priest, is the priest still barred from continuing to be a priest like Abelard was? If Benedict XVI was gelded, would he have to stop being the Pope?
I am referring to Roman Catholic priests.
The Code of Canon Law, Title VI, Chapters I and II, lay out the requirements for ordination, and while I won’t quote them here in their entirety, suffice to say no such regulation exists today. The closest is perhaps Can. 1041, 5ƒ, referring to mutilation. But the regulation prohibits:
So, no.
I am not going to Google “Castrated priests” just because I bet someone has a fetish site.
Why would anyone geld a priest? Don’t their owners rely on stud fes for income after they’re too old to race?
Was there once prohibition on becoming a priest if he possessed any Jewish blood or born out of wedlock? I seem to remember those as well.
born out of wedlock for sure, although some did find a way around it. also candidate had to be a virgin, once again some did find ways around it.
But, in Abelard’s case, he didn’t geld himself but was, er, involuntarily gelded.
Does any know the specific rule (Canon Law?) that forced Abelard out? When was it rescinded?
Which is the point **Bricker ** is making I think. Under the current Code of Canon Law self-mutilation prevents a man’s ordination. There’s no mention of mutilation by another preventing a man’s ordination or affecting an already ordained priest (as in Abelard’s case).
I’m not sure about the Jewish bit, but illegitimacy used to be an impediment to ordination under the 1917 Code of Canon Law. This is no longer the case under the 1983 Code of Canon Law.
Right – the old proscription may have been based on an OT biblical precept that eunuchs were not allowed in the Temple, but also to set the Christians apart from other Roman-era upstart religions such as the Cybele cult, which encouraged such mutilations. In modern times, though, it just makes sense to make allowance for injuries sustained involuntarily (or thru medical necessity)
Considering that AFAIK it has always been allowed for widowers to enter the priesthood (and that AFAIK there’s no way to test for “virginity” in males) :** cite**?
pre-vatican 2 rules, like the aforementioned illegitimacy rule. candidates were strictly vetted and could be tossed out of seminary for the appearance of impropriety, let alone a claim of impropriety, or appearance of pregnancy/child.
being a widower is one way around the rule, if one had a legitimate (in the eyes of the church) marriage.
In the early Church some zealots interpreted Matthew 19:12 literally (“They have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of Heaven.”), including one of the great Fathers (can’t recall who, Jerome maybe).
It was to discourage this practice that the Church made the rule against castration.
I think it was Origen who castrated himself so that he could preach among women and not be tempted.
Was Abelard “forced out”? After his castration, he became a monk at the Abbey of St. Denis, then after he got in trouble for his views on the trinity and locked up for a while, he got his judgement reversed and ended up becoming an abbot at St. Gildas de Rhuys (until he got in trouble again…). Was he ever actually laicized?
That’s not the same thing as saying there was a rule that candidates for priesthood had to be virgins. Cite request stands.
FWIW, a (Catholic) poster on another message board that I visit insists that vasectomy is a form of self-mutilation. So, theoretically, if a snipped widower wanted to enter the priesthood, would he be considered to have self-mutilated?
Canon 1041(5), as quoted by **Bricker ** above, specifically refers to “one who has gravely and maliciously mutilated himself”. I have no idea whether vasectomy is considered both grave and malicious. Since it would normally be carried out by a doctor I doubt that it’s even considered self-inflicted.