I’ve read that the reason a priest may not marry is that Jesus was never married. Then again, I’ve read that a priest may not marry so that a priest could not give his inheritance to anyone except the Church. Can you set the record straight on this matter or perhaps do you have a third reason?
The Catholic church, and I guess most other churches that have celibacy rules, do not consider them a dogma deduced from divine right; in the early days, Catholic priests were allowed to marry (although it seems as if some believers disapproved of this, according to http://www.catholic-ew.org.uk/mi/celib01.htm), so I guess the fact that we don’t know anything about Jesus himself being married doesn’t seem to be relevant. The first formal rule that excluded priests from marrying was enacted in 306 AD and has remained, with minor changes, in effect ever since. The reason for it probably was that priests should focus entirely on serving their community and are not supposed to be distracted by anthing.
Most protestand churches allow their priests to marry, and the Pope could repeal celibacy if he wanted to. It’s not ordained by the Lord or anything said in the Bible.
Thanks Schnitte for the quick reply.
But what about Catholic priests who are married? Is this a rule or a guideline?
Married men ordained as priests in other religions (e.g. Church of England, Orthodox Catholic, etc.) who wish to convert to Roman Catholicism, are allowed to continue both their pastoral duties and their martial status, after being accepted by the authorities in Rome.
Roman Catholicism does not ordain married men, but allows married men who are previously ordained to offer the sacrements.
There are only a handful of “legally” married priests; that is, priests of other faiths who were married in accordance with their faith’s laws and then later converted to Catholicism. I’ve heard estimates as high as a couple dozen in the U.S., but no more than that. (My mother-in-law’s priest is one.) Most of the fellows calling themselves “married priests” are priests who have forsaken their vow of celibacy. This is uncontroversially against the rules, and the Church has never (AFAIK) recognized the practice. Given the dearth of priests, however, it has often turned a blind eye to priests who have gotten married. However, whenever said priests begin to get some publicity, they have been defrocked.
A group of “married” priests can be found on the Web at www.restapriest.com but, despite their claims, if you asked the Pope he would unequivocally say these fellows are not priests.
–Cliffy
Also, don’t forget about Eastren Rite (or “Unite”) churches, which are part of the Roman Catholic Church, but follow their own rules and practices, including having married priests. It’s been covered here before (along with this whole topic and the detailed history of priestly celibacy in the “Latin Rite” RCC), just do a search.
The summary:
Early Church – Practiced optional celibacy. Some did so to be like Christ. Celibacy mostly caught on in monasteries after the end of martyrdom. The reason sort of went like: “if I can’t be considered worthy to be martyred, I will forsake all worldly things (including marriage) for the sake of the Kingdom.”
Medieval Church – Celibacy was no longer optional, it was made mandatory in the Western, i.e., Latin Rite Church. One of the reasons being the inheritance problem (parishes were the property and source of a priest’s income for there was no such thing as a regular ‘collection’ at that time). Eastern European and Asian Churches kept optional celibacy. When some of these Orthodox churches reunited[sup]1[/sup] with Rome, they were not forced to accept madatory celibacy. Since Eastern Rite Catholic Churches are as Catholic as the Latin Rite Church, then one can truthfully say, The Catholic Church has always had a married priesthood.
Modern – Mandatory celibacy persists in the Latin Rite Catholic Church… with exceptions. As mentioned in previous posts, married Protestant priests are allowed to remain married while being ordained Catholic priests (upon their entrance into the RCC and acceptance as priestly candidates). Eastern Rite Catholic Churches in the ‘West’ are not allowed to have married priests… with an exception. The Melkite Rite bishop in the U.S. basically said, “screw it, I don’t have enough priests, and so, according to my Rite (and right) I’m going to have married priests in the U.S.”
Future – This or any Pope, at his word and leave, can change the practice of mandatory celibacy and make it optional.
Peace.
Fr. Smith married us. The three of us are very happy now.
[sup]1[/sup] Called ‘uniate’ churches, previously. The term is now considered impolite since it is defining their Rite in relation to Rome. The preferred term is Eastern Catholic Churches.
A couple of places online, including http://www.rentapriest.com/statistics.htm, say over 100.
moriah is mostly right. Coupla quibbles.
- Not all of the Byzantine (Eastern, primarily Greek Rite) Catholic Churches are Uniate. I’m Italo-Greek Byzantine Catholic, and the Italo-Greek church never split with Rome.
2)Married men can now be ordained in the Eastern Rites in the United States, provided that they are at least 45 years old and their kids are grown. The edict banning the ordination of married men in the Eastern Churches in the US was lifted I think three or four years ago. There was a big announcement about it in my church.
I have personally met two married Eastern Rite Catholic priests. Both were ordained outside the U.S.- one had been ordained in Albania, not sure where the other was ordained.
Cliffy, the basic point of your post is 100% accurate, but it’s rife with minor, nitpicky inaccuracies, so may I without being offensive make some critiques?
First off, Cliffy is accurate in there being only a few married Latin Rite Catholic priests serving as priests, nearly all of whom were married clergy in another faith who converted to Catholicism. However:
[list=1[li]Priests of the Eastern Rites in Catholicism and Orthodox priests are recognized as such by the Roman Catholic Church. Being married is not a bar to ordination to the priesthood in either the Eastern Rites or in Orthodoxy, though ordained priests cannot marry if unmarried (or remarry if married and their wife dies). Married priests, however, are not eligible to become bishops, who must be celibate.[/li]
[li]In the Anglican communion, a priest may marry before or after ordination, and married priests are eligible for the episcopacy. (And in many Anglican churches, women can be ordained; I received communion a few months ago from a pregnant priest.) Anglican orders are in a state of dispute, with Leo XIII’s ruling suggesting they are not considered valid by Catholicism (but not having been ex cathedra, the issue is still open for debate). I believe Orthodox consider Anglican clergy to be validly ordained but schismatic.[/li]
[li]Catholic theology says that ordination leaves an indelible mark. Therefore if a priest “leaves the priesthood to marry,” what he is doing is not giving up being a priest – he is a priest for life – but surrendering his “faculties” to validly serve in a priestly function. Any such “laicized” priest may completely validly function as a priest in an emergency, e.g., hearing the confession of a dying man and granting absolution when a non-laicized priest may not arrive at the scene in time. It might also be noted that many priests feeling the call to marry do not “forsake their vow of celibacy,” but seek laicization and release from that vow from their bishops, remaining completely within canon law.[/li]
The Pope would emphatically not say that the Restapriest men are “not priests” but that they are offering their priestly services illicitly – i.e., without and against the authority of the Church.[/list]
I do not know the purpose and function of the original Fourth Century decisions about celibacy, which were mostly made by local councils. When the rule was made universal in the West, the reason given was that clergy, particularly bishops, were accruing land and treasure by virtue of their office and then leaving land, treasure, and office to their children, many of whom were not decent priests.
The main reason advanced by the Vatican in the 20th Century has been that a priest with a family is unable to give his full attention to his parish family on account of the demands of his marital family. Having known clergy families, I can see some grounds for this, though I personally feel it is inadequate justification for a universal rule. (And when the Pope asks me, that’s what I’ll tell him! ;))
Say a guy is 100% Latin Rite Catholic, and he marries a 100% Latin Rite Catholic girl and is married in a 100% Latin Rite Catholic ceremony.
The girl dies and leaves the guy a widower. Can he become a priest if he wants to?
What about if he’s divorced?
I’m quite sure I read that the prohibiton on marriage by members of the RC priesthood was formalized around 1000 BC by one of the Popes specifically to insure that the estate of the priest would go to the Church. Per The Master, the Church was a viable career for the upper-middle-class, so there were definitely estates worth obtaining.
Can anyone else substantiate this and/or provide the name of the Pope in question? Or for that matter, can someone dispute the above?
Big Whopps!!! That was ‘AD’ !!!
Yes. I have met at least one guy who did this. He even had grown children. (I suspect that if his children had been young when he tried to entery the seminary, he would have been discouraged by the faculty, but I am not aware of any rule forbidding it.)
Divorce would make him ineligible (unless he also got an annulment) because the Church does not recognize civil divorce and would consider him to be still married. (Even divorce with annulment might be a problem: the church has several rules, designed to avoid giving scandal, forbidding different people from being ordained, and divorce might be among them, although I am guessing.)
This post discusses the rules that were promulgated under Pope Gregory VII just after 1073. Scroll down to Gregorean Reforms. (In fact there is a fair amount of good information on the history of the priesthood and celibacy, in general, throughout that thread [size=1]along with some crank posts[size].)