Expert: Fr. Michael - 2/8/2007

Question
Hello
Which of the vows that you take are the most difficult to bear. I'm not a priest,but I would say that it is a celibacy. Why? Because you consciously reject one of human drives and, in my opinion, it's very challenging. I think that those who decide to live in celibacy are, most often,more conscious of their own sexuality, and understand it better, than those who start families. But maybe I'm wrong. By the way, do you believe that they will ever do away with this vow in the Roman Catholic Church? What's your opinion on this? Some people say that it would be better for the church,since there are priests who, secretly, engage themselves in romantic affairs with women, we hear of pedophilia sometimes and so on. Personally I'm not sure if this would help! What do you think? Thank You!

Answer
You must be thinking of those in religious orders (Dominicans, Franciscans, etc.).  Secular priests do not take vows.

       Clerical celibacy has a biblical basis in the evangelical counsel of Our Lord as relayed in St. Matthew's Gospel (19:12), also taken up by St. Paul in his First Epistle to the Corinthians (7:8-9, 25-26, and especially
32-35), and confirmed by St. John in the Apocalypse (14:4-5).  It is clear that once the Apostles received the call, they did not lead a married life.

       The tradition of clerical celibacy was solemnly proclaimed by the Council of Nicaea, the First Ecumenical Council, in 325.  Canon No. 3, unanimously approved by the Fathers, admitted of no exceptions whatsoever.  The Council considered that the prohibition imposed thereby on all bishops, priests, and deacons against having a wife absolute.  All subsequent councils that have addressed the subject have renewed this interdiction.

       Not only would it be a violation of Sacred Tradition to blot out a custom decreed for 2,000 years to be absolutely obligatory, but also one must recognize that clerical celibacy is to be seen not merely as of
ecclesiastical institution, but part of what is more broadly known in Catholic moral theology as "divine positive law," initiated by Christ and His Apostles.  That is, it is not merely disciplinary in nature.

       There is a reason for this Tradition.  The cleric in major orders, by virtue of his ordination, contracts a marriage with the Church, and he cannot be a bigamist.  St. Jerome in his treatise "Adversus Jovinianum," bases clerical celibacy on the virginity of Christ.

       The German scholar, Stefan Heid, in his book, Celibacy in the Early Church, demonstrates that continence-celibacy after ordination to the priesthood was the absolute norm from the start -- even for the separated married ordinand -- a triumph of grace over nature, so to speak.  The Eastern practice we now see was a mitigation of the rule, not, as the Modernists like to claim, the original practice from which the Roman Catholic Church diverged.

       A married clergy is hardly a better condition.  The Protestants, Jews, etc., have a married clergy, and they have even more serious problems than Catholic -- in addition to adultery, divorce, homosexuality (remember the recent case of the well-known Protestant evangelical).  No, a celibate clergy is more Biblical and more practical.