Editorial

Priestly celibacy in the Church

Priests may not get married, but there have been married Catholic priests throughout the Church’s history, including today. How is that possible?

One of the recommendations that came out of the recent synod of bishops from the Amazon River basin in South America was that Pope Francis allow the ordination of married men as priests in areas where there are few priests. In fact, as far as the secular media were concerned, that seemed to be the top recommendation.

We think, therefore, that our readers should know what the situation is about married priests and some of the history about the practice of celibacy for most priests. We have no idea what Pope Francis will do regarding the recommendation, and we aren’t advocating either for or against it.

So how can the first sentence in this editorial be true? How can there be married priests at the same time that priests may not get married?

The Catholic Church includes both the Western Church and several Eastern Churches. There are six rites in the Catholic Church—the Latin, Alexandrian, Armenian, Byzantine, East Syriac and West Syriac—all of them in communion with the pope. There were married priests in all of the rites for many centuries, but then the Latin rite decided to make priestly celibacy mandatory. The Eastern Churches did not, so there are married priests in the Eastern rites.

There are also a few married priests in the Latin rite, mainly former Anglican Church priests who converted to Catholicism. They were permitted to remain married when they were ordained Catholic priests.

However, in both the Eastern and Western rites, the men must be married before they are ordained. Once they’re ordained, they may not marry. Therefore, the only married priests are those who married before they were ordained.

Probably most people know that celibacy for priests is not a doctrine. It’s a discipline that the pope could change if he thought that was best for the Church. But the Western Church has long prized celibacy because Jesus seemed to favor it.

He said, “Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it” (Mt 19:12).

However, we know that at least some of the Apostles were married. Jesus cured St. Peter’s mother-in-law, and St. Paul, while defending himself, wrote, “Do we not have the right to take along a Christian wife, as do the rest of the Apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Kephas?” (1 Cor 9:5). However, St. Paul himself was celibate.

While most early leaders of the Church remained celibate, it took a while before celibacy for priests became mandatory. The Council of Nicaea in 325, in fact, rejected a proposal that would have banned priests from marrying.

In the Middle Ages, the issue of married priests became a financial problem, with the children of priests claiming ownership of Church property. In the 11th century, Pope Benedict VIII prohibited the children of priests from inheriting property.

But it wasn’t until the 12th century, at the Second Lateran Council in 1139, that a rule was passed forbidding priests to marry. That rule was strengthened by the Council of Trent in 1563. Since then, celibacy in the Western Church has been an important part of the priesthood.

We might note, too, that in the Eastern rites, bishops may not be married. This usually means that bishops are chosen from priests who live in monasteries since they are not married.

So what are the chances that Pope Francis will accept the recommendation of the Amazon basin bishops? We are not going to guess, but we can quote what he has said on the subject.

While he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he said, “For the moment, I am in favor of maintaining celibacy, with all its pros and cons, because we have 10 centuries of good experiences rather than failures.” This, of course, was before he became pope and, we note, he said “for the moment.”

We also know that Pope Francis listens, especially to synods.

—John F. Fink