Friday, May 01, 2009

Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Latin Rite

Concerning sacerdotal celibacy, another altogether more traditional perspective from the Roman Communion:

A selection from The Form of the Priesthood and the Formation of Priests

Father Jay Scott Newman

Pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Greenville, South Carolina

As recorded in Chapter 19 of St. Matthew’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus proposed celibacy as a freely chosen and permanent state of life and as a witness to the kingdom of heaven, and this was a true revolution in Judaism. Because marriage is, as the Nuptial Blessing puts it, the one blessing that was not forfeited by original sin or washed away in the flood, and because we are commanded by the one, only, living and true God to be fruitful and multiply, marriage was considered by Jews to be not simply a happy domestic arrangement but a sacred duty. And for this reason, not being married was usually thought of as at least a tragedy and perhaps a punishment. Scholars tell us that religiously motivated celibacy was a feature of life in the Essene community to which it seems John the Baptist had connections, but this was surely outside the mainstream of Jewish life.

From the time of the Apostles, however, celibacy for the sake of the kingdom has been a regular feature of Christian life in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, and although there is no essential or intrinsic connection between the priesthood and perpetual celibacy, it has long been required for priestly ordination in the Latin Church because it is held to be most fitting for the priestly life. The Second Vatican Council expressed that conviction this way:

“Perfect and perpetual continence for the sake of the kingdom of heaven was recommended by Christ the Lord. It has been freely accepted and laudably observed by many Christians down through the centuries as well as in our own time, and has always been highly esteemed in a special way by the Church as a feature of priestly life. For it is at once a sign of pastoral charity and an incentive to it, as well as being in a special way a source of spiritual fruitfulness in the world. It is true that it is not demanded of the priesthood by its nature. This is clear from the practice of the primitive Church and the tradition of the Eastern Churches where in addition to those—including all bishops—who choose from the gift of grace to preserve celibacy, there are also many excellent married priests. While recommending ecclesiastical celibacy this sacred Council does not by any means aim at changing that contrary discipline which is lawfully practiced in the Eastern Churches. Rather, the Council affectionately exhorts all those who have received the priesthood in the married state to persevere in their holy vocation and continue to devote their lives fully and generously to the flock entrusted to them.” (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 16)

But, the Council continues, “there are many ways in which celibacy is in harmony with the priesthood. For the whole mission of the priest is dedicated to the service of the new humanity which Christ, the victor over death, raises up in the world through his Spirit and which is born ‘not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God’ (John 1:13). By preserving virginity or celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, priests are consecrated in a new and excellent way to Christ. They more readily cling to him with undivided heart and dedicate themselves more freely in him and through him to the service of God and of men. They are less encumbered in their service of his kingdom and of the task of heavenly regeneration. In this way they become better fitted for a broader acceptance of fatherhood in Christ.

“By means of celibacy, then priests profess before men their willingness to be dedicated with undivided loyalty to the task entrusted to them, namely that of espousing the faithful to one husband and presenting them as a chaste virgin to Christ. They recall that mystical marriage, established by God and destined to be fully revealed in the future, by which the Church holds Christ as her only spouse. Moreover, they are made a living sign of that world to come, already present through faith and charity, in which the children of the resurrection shall neither be married not take wives.” (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 16)

So, to summarize, although there is no necessary connection between celibacy and the priesthood, the Catholic Church finds that it is a fitting discipline for priests freely to embrace the celibate state for these reasons: to be conformed more completely to Christ, to serve more freely the people entrusted to their care, to live as Christ lived—as a spouse only to the Church, and to bear witness to the life to come in which there is no marriage. There are and always have been married priests in the Catholic Church, but in the Western Church for more than a thousand years, the norm has been and continues to be that only celibate males are eligible for priestly ordination.

This public commitment to a life without marriage and therefore a life without sex quite naturally makes Catholic priests objects of ridicule and contempt when we do not live according to that promise, and this is true most of all when the misconduct either is homosexual or is with minors or both. The notorious scandals of the past several years have caused many in the Catholic Church to ask if its time to reconsider the commitment to celibacy for priests, but the basic response of Church authorities so far seems be this: First, celibacy no more causes unchastity than marriage causes adultery, and second, the general promiscuity of our culture makes celibacy for the kingdom a more important witness now than it has ever been. From my own experience of these matters, I would say that the discipline of celibacy for priests is here to stay.

6 comments:

Canon Tallis said...

"There are and always have been married priests in the Catholic Church, but in the Western Church for more than a thousand years, the norm has been and continues to be that only celibate males are eligible for priestly ordination." But St Paul teaches differently and calls the forced suppression of marriage the "doctrine of devils." Since the Roman Church attempted to turn Western Christianity into one large Cluniac monastery the immorality of its clergy and especially its upper clergy has been legendary. The lives of the popes and cardinals of the century of the Reformation is as scandalous as anything ever written.

But Rome will not either hear Holy
Scripture nor repent itself of its sins. That means it must stand before the throne of the everlasting judge. Do any of you think that they are ready?

Jay Scott Newman said...

Would you care to add something from "Maria Monk" or Jack Chick while you're at it?

It is one thing to argue that the discipline of mandatory celibacy for priests in the Latin Rite should be changed, but it is another thing entirely to hurl invective with the intent to incite. Surely, Canon, the Gospel is not served in such a way.

Your Google ID says that you are a student of patristics and church history, and for that reason you surely know that the constant need of the church for reform, the vagaries of clerical morals, and encouraging perpetual celibacy for the Kingdom are much more complex than an attempt "to turn Western Christianity into one large Cluniac monastery." Please don't be unfair to history in the service of scoring debating points.

And while I grieve over the sins of prelates and priests, I return to one of the points I made in my lecture: celibacy no more causes unchastity than marriage causes adultery. In both cases, the cause is the same: infidelity to the Gospel. The same Christ who taught us about the indissolubility of marriage also taught us celibacy for the Kingdom. Both ways of life of arduous, but no Christian can follow Christ except in the Way of the Cross.

Nathan said...

The cart has been placed before the horse. The Roman Church can not expect to have much success by recruiting candidates for the priesthood before they have determined whether they are called to be married or chaste. The rest of Christ's Holy Catholic Church can continue to embrace multi-tasking; allowing the Holy Spirit to call whom He chooses without being restricted by those who would bind rather than loose.

Nathan

Canon Tallis said...

Father Newman,

When the first thing which the Vatican requested of the United States government after the election of the present pope was the suppression of an American warrant for his arrest for aiding abetting the escape from arrest of a number of American Roman priests, I think that the most important thing Catholic Church, Roman, Anglican and Orthodox, can do is be as obedient to Holy Scripture as possible.

It is not possible or even wise to pretend that the forced imposition of "clerical celibacy" in opposition to the teaching of St Paul did not have terrible consequences for all of the Western Church.

charles said...

"First, celibacy no more causes unchastity than marriage causes adultery, and second, the general promiscuity of our culture makes celibacy for the kingdom a more important witness now than it has ever been."

Here! Here!

Jay Scott Newman said...

Canon Tallis, I am afraid that you multiply non sequiturs faster even than Rowan Williams. Your quarrel is not with Benedict XVI or even with Hildebrand; your quarrel is with the apostolic origins of celibacy and a tradition of more than 1,500 years which has been supported by the vast majority of Western bishops in every time and place, from Leo the Great to John Paul the Great. That numerous clerics have failed in their duty to live faithfully the vow of perpetual celibacy they took freely at their ordination does not in any way nullify the wisdom of the Church in restricting presbyteral and episcopal ordination in the Latin Rite to celibates.

Aside from that, I'll be happy at any time and place to demonstrate the myriad ways in which the Anglican Communion is not faithful to Holy Scripture to the manifest destruction of Christian faith and life around the globe. Meanwhile, Benedict XVI stands as the world's preeminent witness to the truth of the Gospel. So, you can have Dr. Williams, and I will gladly stand with Dr. Ratzinger.

Archbishop Donald Arden

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