Priestly Continence for the Kingdom

by Fr. Roger J. Landry - November 11, 2005

The recently concluded Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist proposed to Pope Benedict that the Church must do a better job explaining the "relationship between celibacy and priestly ordination… in full respect of the tradition of the Eastern Churches."

The bishops recognized that for the faithful to appreciate why the Synod fathers determined that the ordination of "married men of proven virtue" was "a path not to be followed," the faithful first needed to understand better the history and theology of priestly celibacy. They perceive that many Catholics have been misled by the sound-bytes of opponents of the celibate priesthood, which most reporters have uncritically accepted and repeated: that priestly celibacy is a rather recent practice, instituted only in 1139 for economic reasons, and therefore that there is no good historical or theological reason why priests should not be allowed to marry.

The first step in providing a better explanation for the connection between priesthood and celibacy is to correct some common misunderstandings. One confusion is between doctrine and discipline. Priestly celibacy is a discipline, a practice, of the Roman Catholic Church, and therefore, like the discipline concerning Eucharistic fasts, can change. It is possible for married men to be validly ordained. This contrasts with the Church's doctrine, based on Christ's own choices and the constant teaching and practice of the Church, that women cannot be validly ordained priests. This cannot and will not change.

The second confusion concerns whether priests will ever be allowed to marry. The answer is no. In the entire history of the Church, East and West, priests have never been permitted to marry. When in 1139, the Second Lateran Council declared that marriage attempted by a bishop, priest or deacon was invalid, this was not the beginning of priestly celibacy, but a declaration of something that had always been prohibited. What has occurred, rather, is that married men have been ordained. The ordination of husbands was quite common in the early Church, is still customary in the eastern Churches — both the Orthodox and those in communion with Rome — and even occurs in the Latin rite today with former Anglican or Episcopalian priests who have entered the Catholic Church. In all such cases, past and present, before ordination the married men made the commitment that should they become a widower, they would not remarry.

Many Catholics wonder why the sequence of the sacraments is relevant — why a married man can get ordained but an ordained man cannot get married. The reason points toward perhaps the third and most common confusion about the history of celibacy and the priesthood: what married men did after ordination in the early Church. The sacramental sequence is crucial because once a man was ordained, he consecrated himself fully to the service of the Lord and therefore observed a "law of perfect continence" in relation to his spouse. He would never remarry because he would never have been able to consummate that marriage.

This lex continentiae is implied in the Gospel. When St. Peter, who had a mother-in-law and therefore was married (Mt 8:14), told Jesus, "we have left our homes and followed you," Jesus replied that "those who have left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God" would receive a great inheritance in this life and in the next (Lk 18:28-30).

This leaving of home, wife and children was seen, too, in the early Church. The Council of Elvira, Spain, in 305, decreed that it was "good absolutely to forbid bishops, priests and deacons … to have relations with their wives and procreate children." Since this precept did not provoke a huge outcry, it could not have been a revolutionary novelty; it was merely a restatement of what had clearly been the practice of the Church during the centuries of persecution. The Second Council of Carthage in 390 stated that such continence for the kingdom was practiced universally from the beginning of the Church. St. Jerome wrote at that time, "The apostles were either virgins or continent after having been married. Bishops, priests and deacons are chosen among virgins and widowers; in any case, once they are ordained, they live in perfect chastity."

In the early Church, the issue was not marriage before ordination, but continence for the kingdom after ordination. From the beginning priestly service demanded total dedication. It still does.

Next week we will discuss in greater depth the "tradition of the Eastern Churches."

Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.